


Transformers: Metal Force ARC 1: THE BEGINNING

by Charged_To_Be_Free_Archives



Series: Transformers: Metal Force Season 1 [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Main Story, My Universe, Transformers: Metal Force - Freeform, storyline without a war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2020-10-04 07:31:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 68,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charged_To_Be_Free_Archives/pseuds/Charged_To_Be_Free_Archives
Summary: Fan created Transformers continuity. Due to an unfortunate accident, the Autobots are sent to a distant planet called Earth with one of Cybertron's most important relics- Matrix of Leadership. They're being chased by a small, yet highly intimidating group of the Decepticons led by no one other than the merciless and cunning seeker Starscream. In order to protect their home planet, they have to learn to cooperate with humans and each other. Not everyone should be trusted, but no one has to be left behind.





	1. Optimus Prime's Legacy

“He did it again?” Optimus asked, walking alongside Alpha Trion through the halls of the Iacon Archives. His long time mentor nodded, handing him a datapad. It had a little note on it’s screen which read: “Went for a ride. Be back by tomorrow. Love, Hot Rod!” and a doodle of a young Autobot on the top of the mountain with a blue flag in his servo.

“This is the third time he missed his class, Optimus.” Trion said in concerned tone. “If he’s going to be the next Prime, he has to take this topic seriously.”

“I know this.” The Prime replied, still looking at the datapad. “But he’s still a youngling, Alpha Trion.”

“Youngling or not, he’s your responsibility. You could at least teach him some proper manners. I can’t believe how arrogant he became over the years.”

Optimus ex vented, putting his servo on his blue healm. “I have no idea where he caught that.”

“I may have some ideas.” The old Archivist walked to his friend and patted him on the shoulder. “I know this is a difficult situation for you, but Hot Rod needs your guidance. Ageing is a very important part of every young Cybertronian's life which requires an explicit ammount of supervision from their influence figure. You are his caretaker and he needs you. I fear that he might get even more out of control if you will not interfere.” The Prime was silent for a moment, but then looked at his mentor and nodded.

“You have my word, old friend. Hot Rod will be worthy of becoming my successor. I willl make sure of that.”

——

“Is that all ya got?!” Meanwhile, two vehicles were driving on the edges of Hydrax Canyons. Two speedsters, very much different from each other. The red one, and the sea green one. A mech, and a femmie. The red one was slightly smaller than the other and had fire textures all over his hood and a big yellow spoiler behind. His doorwings were yellow with orange accents. The second had more bulky looking appearance and no spoiler at all. Her white accents were reflecting the light of the sun which made the ground beneath her shine. She was more simple, and he was more noticable.

“I was just giving you a chance to keep up!” The sea green femmie chuckled and sped up, leaving the red mech behind. Without any more thoughts, the Speedster followed her lead, engine roaring with excitement and determination. Soon, they left the safe area of the canyons and entered more risky teritory. The femmie didn’t took too long to notice.

“Hey, Moonracer! Ten shanix that I can cross this path quicker than you?” The red vehicle shouted, closing the distance between the two of them.

“This looks dangerous!” The femmie replied. “We should head back!”

“After I’ll win the bet!~” He chuckled, stepping on the gas. Moonracer sweared she heard a big smirk crossing the mech’s faceplates as he drove off. She wasn’t going to quit either.

The road was full of bumps and spikes growing out of the ground. One wrong move, and you’d be stuck for a good while. A perfect place to race!

The red mech sped up, driving right towards the first set of spikes on the road. Before the green femmie could react, he circled it, leaving a fiery trail behind. Moonracer found a safe spot for crossing and decided to drive around. It would take a while to catch her friend, but at least she wouldn't be the one to remove pieces of metal from her frame for the next three cycles.

The red mech continued on his way, trying his best to avoid the dangers of his path. Unfortunately, his reflexes couldn’t predict a bump before him, which made him lose his balance. He fell off the road, shouting and landing on his back. He crushed on his T-cog, which forced him to transform back to his robot mode and ultimately offline his optics. The femmie gasped and turned around, transforming as well. She ran to her friend, picking him from the ground and checking his condition.

“Hot Rod?” She shouted, panicking. Her back wheels couldn't stop rolling. “Hot Rod???”

“…Uuuugh…” The mech slowly opened back his optics and saw Moonracer above him. “…Hi, Moony.” He found some strenght to smile at her. Without any warning, she tugged him closer and hugged him tightly, making him hiss.

“You absolute moron!” She yelled, both happy and about to commit a murder. “You could’ve died!”

“Ugh… But I didn’t! Moon, you’re crushing me!” The green femmie released Hot Rod from her grasp.

“Are you hurt?” She asked, switching her expression from relieved to geniuenly concerned again.

“No, I think…” The red mech slowly stood up with some help from Moonracer. When he was on his pedes, he looked down and saw how much he scatched his paintjob. He had several big scratches in at least three very visible parts of his frame including his chest, arms, and legs. Great…

“Optimus will murder me…” He whispered, reaching to his back. Primus, he hoped that his bow was alright!

“I wouldn’t blame him if he did.” Moonracer crossed her arms, frowning. “I told you that it was a bad idea!”

“Yeah, but you followed me anyway!” The red Speedster found his bow and activated it. Besides a few tiny marks, it looked perfectly alright. His vents made a little relieved huff.

“Someone has to drag your lifeless husk in the worst case scenario, you know! Why even come here, couldn’t we drive to the Hall of Records?”

“Well, we could have but..."

"Buuut?" She rose her optical rige, looking rather irritated.

"Well. You see that big mountain over there?” Hot Rod turned around and pointed at the nearest horrizon. Moonracer followed his digit and saw, indeed, a mountain far ahead. A big blue mountain with a visible building on it's top. “Optimus used to take me there when I was still developing. I wanted to see if it stayed the same as I remember.”

“I see… But why Hydrax Canions? Aren’t there other ways to get to the top?”

“There are, but me and Optimus already crossed them. A couple of times even. I wanted to try something else with someone else. Create new memories, ya know?”

Moonracer turned to face his friend and gave him a questioning look. "And why with me?" Hot Rod’s expression somewhat softened. He deactivated and hid his bow behind his back, looking a bit ashamed of what he did. It wasn’t supposed to go like that. 

“Because you’re my amica, Moon." He slightly looked away. "That mountain is a bit of a tradition. When I look at it, I think of the ones closest to me, and… I felt like I should include you to this tradition as well. Holy Vector, that sounds corny as scrap, but... I guess that's just me. I'm corny as scrap.”

“…Oh. Well.” She paused for a second, looking down. Hot Rod was propably the most reckless bot she has ever met in her entire existence, but at the same time, she just couldn’t bring herself to hate him. Both of them knew each other since the sparkling days, they were practically amicas at this point. No matter what he did, she loved hanging out with him and do many crazy things together. He was an interesting mech like that. After some time, Moonracer bounced on her pedes and put her servos on her waist. “Yes, as a matter of fact you are, indeed, corny as scrap, Rod. I appreciate the sentiment, but that still doesn’t explain your stupid actions, I hope you know that!”

“Oh yeah. I’m sure Bulk will make me remember.” The mech scratched his neck plating, feeling surprisingly nervous.

“Yeah… We should definetly get back.” The feemie transformed back into a vehicle. Before she drove off, she said: “Oh, and by the way! You owe me 10 shanix.”

“What?! For what?!”

“For making me worried. And for winning the bet.~” Before he had a chance to reply, she stepped on her gas and left Hot Rod behind. Soon, the red mech followed her lead.

He sure hoped that Optimus had some really important business trip planned for another century, because Primus forbid if he found out...


	2. Small talks part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Bulkhead, the tired babysitter

Hot Rod finally arrived back at his place. He and Optimus lived in a small house in the centre of Iacon. He tried his best to sneak inside of his room and pretend that nothing ever happened, but it seemed impossible since he got there later than he thought. The young Speedster decided to practice his aim on his way, so a few more cycles were lost. He really didn’t want to come back at all, but he knew that he couldn’t hide for the rest of his life. His aim was getting better though.

Hot Rod jumped on the window and opened it from the outside, sliding to his room. He broke the lock a couple of weeks ago so, it was no problem. He heard a small clank as his pedes collided with the floor beneath him, making him cringe. He hoped that no one heard him. Everything around was dark, only the blue and red biolights of his house equipment were lighting up the room.

Hot Rod ex vented in relief as he tried to climb on his berth, thinking of oh so many excuses he could use, when suddenly the lights turned on.

“Well, well, well.” A deep voice spoke from behind. Frozen in fear, youngling dropped his spoiler behind his back and very slowly looked behind him. In the doorway was standing a tall green Autobot with crossed arms. His big jaw curled into a grimance and bright yellow optics stared with nothing but seriousness at him. Those cursed, terrifying yellow optics…

He’s been caught.

“Uh…” Hot Rod streched his arms and rubbed his optics, pretending like he just onlided. “Hii, Bulk… I didn’t know you were in my house… what brings you here?“

“The same thing that is going to put me in my grave someday.” The green mech named Bulkhead snarled, stepping inside. Hot Rod backed away slightly as the bigger mech scanned his scratched frame. There was no going back from this one.

“Uhh, hey… I know how this looks like, but let me explain. No need to start yelling-”

“Where the FRAG have you been?!” As expected, Bulkhead errupted.

“N- nowhere??? I was just-”

”Do you have ANY idea how long have we been looking for you?! Not only have you dropped your class, but also turned off your comn link and made everyone worried sick! Alpha Trion was worried sick! Optimus was worried sick! I was worried sick! You disappear for a whole day just to return like… Like that! What happened?!”

“Nothing! I’m fine!” The Speedster was sure as ever that he wasn’t going to tell his watcher about the earlier accident.

“Kid, if you’re not going to tell me where you were in less than five nanoclicks, I’m going to call Optimus, and-”

“Bulkhead.” Suddenly, another voice spoke behind the two. Bulkhead turned around and saw no one else than the Prime himself. “Thank you for your help today, but I shall take things from here.”

Hot Rod looked down, feeling like his spark shrinked in pure fear. The green Autobot ex vented heavily, turning back to the youngling.

“You are still in trouble, mister.” He frowned dangerously as he walked to Optimus, patting him on his arm. “I trust you know what to do.”

“I do.” The Prime nodded. “Have a good night, old friend.” Without adding anything else, Bulkhead left.

“Hot Rod.” The young mech jumped, looking into his mentor’s serious optics. “Follow me. We have some important matters to discuss.” He turned around and walked to the hallway. Hot Rod was hesitant at first, but finally decided to follow.

Oh sweet Solus, this was going to be a looong night…


	3. His fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief look at Metal Force's Megatron

Location: Kaon. The Autobot prison island- Alchemor.  
Status: Active.

Megatron was staring at the ground. His whole frame began iching when he tried to shift in a metal claw hugging tightly his waist. His arms and legs were stuck in white metal tubes that held him around a ring like space, connecting him to a gigantic computer on his right. His cell was rather small, not that he could use it anyway. Everything was covered in darkness. The only source of light was the bright screen of a computer and his own red biolights.

Another day, another suffer. He already forgot the last time he saw the sun, or the outside world for that matter. The Decepticon couldn’t help, but wonder how many things has changed during his absence. Many, propably, obviously. Over the time he became really curious about the new life on Cybertron he helped to create. To be precise, he was wondering how the lives of his friends were like now.

Was Bumblebee achieving his life goals as he promised? Was Impactor still a complete aft towards everyone? Was Ratchet retired by now? Was Alpha Trion still alive? Was Optimus still arou- yes, of course the cursed Prime was still around. What a dumb assumption was that he wasn’t.

Megatron felt his chest escaping a tired ex vent.

He felt lonely. So lonely it became a torture. He wished that he’d have a chance to look at his brave rebels again. Shake mechs’ servos. Laugh with sparklings. Race with younglings. Truly anything would be enough.

He missed his life.

Partly, obviously, but he had some good moments. Some really darn good moments he was never going to let go, no matter how much they would want to fry his processors. The pictures of the friends of his past were rushing through his mind. Orion. Soundwave. Shockwave. Bumblebee. Starscream. He missed their company. He missed their voices. He missed their smiles. He missed them so, so much… Maybe… maybe what he did was a mistake after- NO!

Megatron shook his head violently.

No! What he did was neccessary! He did it, beacuse it was the only good way out! He was suffering, but everyone else were having a good life without fear and despair he grew up with! He had to commit treason to bring peace for his people! He did, didn’t he?!

…

Didn’t he…?

Suddenly, Megatron heard a sound of elevator coming down to the level he was kept in. “Finally…” He whispered, curling his lipplates into a soft, appreciative smile. The guard was coming. End of his loneliness and strange thoughts. His mind could finally rest and prepare for a visitor. As soon as the elevator stopped, Megatron heard heavy metal footsteps coming towards his cell. Someone opened the bars that were keeping him isolated from the rest of the building and switched on the lights.

Megatron lowered his head and shielded his optics from the sudden change of brightness. He spent so much time in the darkness that his vision became a bit sensitive to the light. He had to give it some time to recover.

“Megatron.” He heard a familiar monotone voice of a very moody policebot.

“Prowler!” The rebel cheered, slightly opening back his optics. He was able to see a blurry white and grey Cybertronian. His blue and red accents were reflecting the lights and colouring his paintjob into at least four different colors which was somewhat amusing to the Decepticon. He came to the room and frowned dangerously when he heard the nickname Megatron gave to him a couple of years ago.

“How many times have I told you to not call me like that.” The enforcer walked to his little seat next to Megatron and sat down, pulling out a datapad. He started filling reports on the rebel’s condition. Every five seconds he would look up and check his results on a screen of the computer Megatron was connected to. A normal job, yet very risky. At least that’s what he said they said for some reason.

“…Was there a traffic somewhere?” The ex leader asked, peeking at the datapad..

“No.” Prowl replied without looking up. “Why?”

“You were late.” Megatron explained. ”You’re never late.” The policebot finally rose his head and gave the other a weird look. “Just because I was assigned to waste my time with you, doesn’t mean I don’t have any other things to do in life. I had work, I dealt with it, and now I’m here. End of the story.”

The Decepticon rose his optical rigde. Prowl seemed nervous. More nervous than usual that is. Something must have happened. He propably shouldn’t invest into the other’s personal life, but he had literaly nothing better to think about. The policebot reached for another datapad that was already in the room and activated it. He tapped a few buttons and after a second, a small picture of Megatron appeared on it with his heat signature. Everything seemed normal, but there was a small area on his chest that was considered highly questionable. His spark chamber appeared to have a higher temperature than it should and it was still slowly rising. Prowl’s expression grew a bit out of focus. “Did you get your Energon today?” He asked, looking back at Megatron.

“Depends when ‘today’ has started.”

“Ten cycles ago.”

“Really?” Megatron asked, grinning. “Oh well then, someone’s being lazy.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before I answer, can I ask you a personal question?” He was pushing it. He knew this was propably a bad idea, considering the situation he was currently in, but he grew curious. The guards of the prison had a special schedule prepared for him. A very specific and detailed schedule of his refueling periods which made the rebel really suspicious. He guessed that the rest of the prisoners haven’t gotten the same schedule as he did. After some time he figured out that it might have something to do with his unusual spark temperature. Ever since the experiment, it was occuring in the very specific moments, and was diappearing whenever he got his Energon rations. He figured out that this couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Megatron, I swear to Primus-”

“What will happen when I won’t get my rations regularly? Would that be a problem?”

“I don’t know what you’re playing in, but I need this information. This is part of my job, and if you’re not going to answer me-”

“What if I told you that I haven’t had any Energon for half of a mega-cycle?”

“… Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“…Fragging… Ugh!” Megatron’s keeper grunted his denta and hit his knee with his fist. His doorwings dangerously rose and he tightnened his grip on the datapad.

“I’ll be right back.” He hissed, standing up and heading towards the exit. “I need to check on something, try to not pass out from starvation while I’m gone.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” The Decepticon stated. Prowl ingored him and went to another room to check the situation there, locking the door. Just like that he proved for Megatron that this was indeed a problem. He just didn’t know precisely what it was.

Megatron expected to be left alone again when he heard another footsteps, smaller than the policebot’s, coming from the vents. Way smaller. He rose his head and looked around. Thankfully, Prowl left him with the light on. Nice of him.

Suddenly, a crate on the wall before him began shaking. It didn’t take much time to break, revealing a slim figure sliding out of it and coming closer to the Decepticon.

“Megatron.” The figure spoke in a raspy purr, sitting before him and waving it’s tail. “It has been some time.”

Megatron immediately recognized the figure and the voice. Without any control over himself, he smiled, looking down at the new arrival. “Yes. Yes, it has… Hello, Ravage.”

Megatron thought he was going to have a meltdown in front of the Cassette. He haven’t seen anyone, besides Prowl and some other Autobots in a very long time. He had no idea how the Minicon got there, or how he managed to pass the guards, but he didn’t care at the moment. The rebel wanted nothing more than to reach out to him and give him a little pat on the head for his good job, but his humiliating position was keeping him away from it. All he could do was just look down and smile widely as Ravage began circling him.

“What have they done to you?” The Cassette asked, studying the mechanism Megatron was connected to.

“Nothing gentle.” The mech stated, following Ravage with his sight. “How did you escape?”

“I was never caught in the first place. I was brought in by a very dear friend of ours. The same one who is now in the Control Room, letting us talk as much as we want without cameras behind our backs.” Megatron almost jumped, slightly brushing his waist with the claw. His brain began popping with so many questions he never knew he could ask. He finally felt truly something besides defeat.

“Words aren’t able to express how grateful I am that you’re here.”

“I would be grateful too.” Ravage stopped and returned to his previous seat in front of his ex leader. “You are just painful to observe in this state.” Those words hurt. Hurt like nothing else, because Megatron knew that he was right. He felt ashamed of his incapability of anything.

“So,” he decided to change the topic for the sake of his sanity. “did you come here to just greet me, or…?”

”I never appear just to greet people, you of all people should know that.” The Cassete snarked, twitching his audials. “We’re planning to escape this hole.” Megatron almost choked on the atmosphere around him. Did he just heard that right?

“So you are?” He had to make sure.

“Yes. We’ve been rusting in here for too long. We want to see the future we made such sacrifice for.” Oh Primus, he heard that right! But…

“Who is planning the event?”

“Who do you think is planning? The one who has the most power within the Decepticons besides you, of course.” Megatron’s optics went wide.

“Starscream…” Another nod from Ravage.

“You have his regards.”

Megatron felt like his spark lit up. Starscream always knew how to surprise him. He remembered when he gave him his fusion canon, a weapon he grew extremely attched to. It was during his time as a gladiator, the Seeker went to him after a battle and asked if he could join his rebelion. He brought with him that weaponary piece of art as a proof of his usefulness. He made it himself… Megatron wanted to see him so badly and thank him for all of his best efforts. Tell him how proud he was to have such briliant second in command…

Suddenly, Ravage heard like someone was coming towards them. “My time is up.” He said, running towards the vent.

“Wait.” The Decepticon whispered, stopping the Cassette for another brief second. “You came to me and told me all of that. Am I going to take any part of Starscream’s plan?” Ravage turned back, reaching for the crate with his tail. “I don’t know. All I can tell you now is to just be here. You’ll have your role later.” The footsteps were getting louder. Soon, they were loud enough for Megatron to hear.

“Ravage, when is exacly that plan coming to…” Before he was able to finish, the cat disappeared.

“Bunch of useless scrapheads…” Prowl returned to the room, holding a large Energon cube. He looked at Megatron, who was facing the floor. “Here’s your rations.” The rebel didn’t respond. “Hey!”

Megatron rose his head, looking at the policebot with softened gaze.

“What happened to you?” He asked, narrowing the blue optics behind his visor.

“Nothing.” The Decepticon leader found some strenght to make a toothy grin. “I just thought of something nice.”


	4. Small talks part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus takes Hot Rod to a familiar place for educational purposes.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. Just scratched.”

“Bulkhead is right you know. We’ve been worried about you.”

“Yeah, but I’m here now. It’s no big deal.”

“It certainlly is your deal. And so is mine.”

Optimus and Hot Rod went to the farthest part of the house, a garage of some sort. There was a big Groundbridge Ring built in the middle of the room which Bulkhead personally installed a few thousands years back, right before his retirement. A gift for the new neighbors. The Prime walked to the room and stopped at the computer next to the machine, opening it’s system.

“Where have you been today?” He asked without looking back, making Hot Rod shiver. He nervously hid scratches on his chest by crossing his arms, dropping his spoiler.

“I, uh... Have the right to remain silent...?”

“Hot Rod.” Optimus warned.

“... Hydrax Canions.” Hot Rod dropped his head. There was no point in hiding it anymore, was it? ”Around the old mountain base.” The older mech slightly looked around, giving Hot Rod a questionable look.

“Me and Moon wanted to go to the library. To... have our own studies there.”

“Alpha Trion owns the Hall of Records, the biggest library on Cybertron.”

“Yeah, but it’s not nearly as cool as the one in the mountain base.”

“... Very well.” Optimus said and entered the coordinates of some place. Soon, in the circular centre of the machine appeared a bright blue portal. It‘s swirling energy always made the red Speedster somewhat relaxed, but definetly not in this situation.

“After you.” His mentor said, waiting for the youngling to step closer.

Hot Rod ex vented, trying to figure out to which Pit Optimus was taking him to as a punishment before entering the Groundbridge. Soon after, the Prime followed.

\-----

In the middle of the night, a blue portal opened, scaring the potential wildlife away. Optimus and Hot Rod jumped out of it, making a loud clanking noise as their pedes collided with the surface of the metal grounding. As soon as the Groundbridge closed, the young Autobot looked around. They were before a tall building around some kind of blue field. The youngling knew that location.

“Mountain base?” Optimus noded. Hot Rod was geniuenly shocked that they arrived where he wanted to go in the first place.

“But... why?”

“Were you not trying to reach it earlier?” The older mech replied, opening the ancient, already covered in rust door and entered inside. All of this made the young Speedster suspicious, but he would be lying if he said that he didn’t appreciate the gesture. He followed his menotr, looking around.

\-----

The reason why no Cybertronian was visiting the old mountain base was uncertain. Some thought that it was unstable and it could collapse at any time, others didn’t even know of it’s existence. It’s bad reputation could also have it’s core within the mouths of Vosian gossipers. There were alot of rumours around, most of them were rather bad. According to those rumors it was a rather possesed facility. There was once a construction worker who claimed that during the renovations Alpha Trion personally ordered, he heard whispers all around the building. He also claimed that he saw a tall shadow of a person on the wall without anyone to cast it.

Those, of course, were only rumors however. Hot Rod and his mentor were there thousands of times, and nothing bad ever happened. No whispers, no shadows. Just many datapads and a gloomy atmosphere.

He absolutely loved it.

The lights turned on as they walked by. Inside of the building was gigantic. There were beautiful paintings of ancient Cybertronians on the walls; Bots of many shapes and sizes, each wielding a different weapon and armor. All of them however were holding the same small blue and golden object in their servos; The Matrix.

On the bottom of the wall there was this one drawing which stood up immensely. It was an old looking messy doodle of not so beautifully drawn Autobots. One looked like a very misshaped Optimus and the second like a small red ball like figure with blue optics right next to him. Hot Rod smiled as he recognized the artwork. He went closer, drawing his attention to the ball like figure especially. He remembered the day he painted it like it was yesterday.

“It certainly has been some time.” Optimus said.

“Yeah.” The youngling couldn’t help, but place his servo on the drawing, tracing all the lines with his digit. “You had to lift me up so I could draw it.”

“I was actually trying to get you to my office and give you some datapads to draw, but you chose this wall to be your masterpiece.” Hot Rod chuckled.

“Yeah, that sounds like me. I’m way better at drawing now.”

“Yes, I saw your work on the police station the other day.” The older mech stated, eyeing the young Autobot which froze in place.

“Uhhh...”He slowly turned around, trying to look as confused as possible. “I have no idea what are you talking about.” Optimus ex vented heavily.

“As much as it pleases me how much we both remember,” The Prime headed to the main room before them, the library. “we have some other plans for tonight.”

Hot Rod rose an optical ridge, twitching his spoiler. “What do you mean?”

“We need to finish your today’s study.”

“... Oh.” Aaaaaaaand there was the catch! He knew there had to be one.

“The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get back to remembering the old times. Come on, mr. Artist.”

Yep. Everything made sense now.

He was tricked like a fool!

\-----

Hot Rod looked in horror as Optimus unpacked a stack of datapads on the table in the library, taking a seat before him. The ammount of lecture given to him made his fuel pump boil. Sure, they weren’t going to use al of them, but... Primus.

“Optimus, do we really have to?”

“Yes. Yes, we do.” The Prime said as he activated the first datapad. A small holographic screen appeared before the two mechs and showed a picture of twelve Cybertronians, the ones from the drawings they saw earlier. “Now, let’s see where should we start. Who are they?”

“The Primes...” Hot Rod groaned.

“Can you name them in a chronological order?”

“Prima, Vector Prime, Micronus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Nexus Prime, Onyx, Quintus, Solus, Megatronus, Sentinel Primes, and you.” The young mech pressed his forehead against the desk. “Optimus, we’ve been throught this like four times with Alpha Trion. I know enough about the history of the Primes.”

“In that case I’m sure you know about the Tale of Origin.” Optimus reached for another datapad, activating it. A small picture of Cybertron showed up, revealing two tall figures standing on it. One with gigantic horns and the second one with an amazing pair of golden wings behind their back.

“Yeah. Two brothers were ruling over universe, travelling through planets, one good, one bad. Unicron, Primus. Kindergarden stuff.”

“Kindergardeners do not lay on their desks during classes.” His now teacher commented. Hot Rod mumbled and sit back, crossing his arms with a grimance.

“Please, continue.”

“They both were complete opposites of each other; Primus was the Creator and Unicron was the Unmaker. There was a certain balance between them. One day, Primus created a life on one the planets they were staying at. He fell in love with it and decided to stay so he could shape it further. Unicron wasn’t pleased with this. They started fightning and the universe trembled with both Creation and Destruction. Both of the brothers took some dangerous damage, and Primus was weakened to the point where he couldn’t even stay awake anymore. It was then when he created Prima, the first ever Prime.”

“My ancestor.” Optimus played along.

“Yeah. Primus gave him his powers and became the core of the planet which was named shortly ‘Cybertron’. With his new strenght, Prima was able to banish Unicron. Two millions years later, the first Prime with help of his closest friend Vector created objects of great power.”

“What objects were there?”

“Vector Sigma, the Allspark, and the Matrix of Leadership.”

“And what funcions did they serve?”

“The Allspark; Relic of Life, Primus’ very spark trapped in a tiny blue thingy used to create life. Vector Sigma; Tool of Creation, the ancients used it to program the way new generations were supposed to be, well, programmed. A guide to Allspark. And the Matrix; the purest source of power. Only the Primes could use it. It contains Primus’ will and guidance needed to protect our kind. It’s passed from generation to generation.”

“That’s right.” Optimus couldn’t help, but smile. “So you were learning after all.”

“Just because I ditched my classes doesn’t mean I wasn’t learning at all.” Hot Rod rolled his optics, returning to the desk and supporting his cheek with his servo. “I knew Trion would make this lesson, so I decided not to waste both of our time.”

“And yet this was not the first situation like that. I heard that you’ve been avoiding your classes regularly.” His mentor looked at his student’s scratches with worried optics. “Are you certain that you are in no need of medical assistence?”

“No.” Hot Rod huffed childishly, looking away. “Except for making me a little embarrased, it’s nothing. I mean, I wasn’t complaining earlier, why should I start now?“ He said it too harshly. Way too harshly. The older mech narrowed his optics as he asked the question younling wasn’t expecting at all.

“Why are you so angry with me?”

“I’m n...” Hot Rod felt baffled. He faced the Prime, feeling his irriation rising. “Optimus, this isn’t about you.”

“Then what is it about?” Optimus only frowned further.

“Because this lesson is pointless!” The red mech shouted. For some reason he felt too emotional to hold anything back. He just couldn’t. “I know what I should know and I don’t need anything else.”

“So you think, but being a Prime is so much more-”

“Yeah, right. Being a Prime is not that difficult, you just have to smile and get along with poeple!” There was a strong hiss at the end of that sentence.

Optimus gave him a deadly stare. As soon as Hot Rod noticed, he stopped. He pushed his limits too far.

“...Perhaps we need a different lesson for today.” Optimus said after some time, standing up. “Come on.” They were going somewhere again?

“What about the Primes...?”

“You are clearly not invested in this topic.” Optimus said, going to the stairs next to an entrance. “So we’re moving to the next one.”

The young Autobot felt chills all over his body. He just yelled at his mentor for no reason whatsoever. He really didn’t mean what he said, but it just came out like that. Why was he so angry? With some hesitations, he stood up and followed his mentor upstairs.

\-----

On the top of the building was a small observatory. It was so small that it barely was an obserwatory, just a small station with an old fashioned telescope and a somehow still working computer with map of Cybertron on it’s screen.

Hot Rod and Optimus climbed up the stairs, entering the station. The young Autobot scanned the room.

“Was this always been here?” He asked the Prime. It was actually the first time he saw this room.

“It was.” Optimus went to the computer and tapped on it’s screen, chosing a location on the map; Iacon. He went to the telescope and looked through it’s eyespiece. Then, he stepped back and turned to Hot Rod, inviting him closer. The red Speedster walked to the telescope and took a peek himself.

Through it’s vision, Hot Rod saw the very centre of his home city. The statues of the Knights of Cybertron before the The High Council Pavilions, Metroplex, even Alpha Trion’s Hall of Records. Hot Rod smiled, thinking what Big A was doing at the moment. Propably some old mech stuff, recharging or reading. Maybe complaining about the children nowdays. All those locations were projected rather poorly, but good enough to catch the nostalgic feeling of familiarity in the young Autobot’s spark.

“What do you see, Hot Rod?” Optimus asked after a moment.

“Iacon.” Hot Rod answered, optics still stuck on the telescope.

“Do you find anything particular in it?”

“Uh...” The red mech turned the device in different directions, trying to find something that would stand out from the rest; something unique. “I see... that Metroplex needs some waxing?” The Prime chuckled, which calmed the youngling down a bit. Thankfully he didn’t seem so mad at all.

“No, no. Look closer.” The red mech hummed silently, searching as carefully as he could. What was that Optimus had in mind?

“I... have nothing.” He admitted and stepped back. The older mech grabbed the tube of the telescope, steering it lower, occasionaly peeking inside of the eyespiece.

“Now try.” Hot Rod took another chance. He looke again and saw Maccadam’s Old Oil House. The picture however wasn’t focusing on the location itself. In front of the building stood a group of the Autobots. They were drinking oil, chatting, and laughing. With a small push of his servo, Optimus steered the telescope in a different angle, showing the centre again. It was also full of Cybertronians walking, chatting, working, overall living their lives. All possible frame types, sizes, colours, species, and funcions like Maximals, Predacons, Minicons, Rescue Bots, Tripple Changers. Hot Rod faced Optimus.

“Autobots?” He asked.

“Cybertronians.” His mentor corrected. “We’re all build from the same metal, live on the same planet, and in the end, all of us will join the same Allspark. Empire is nothing without it’s people, Hot Rod. They are what makes this planet a planet. Each individual is different, but very alike. All of us have our own needs and desires. Our goals, achievements and lives. Primus gave us free will and right to freedom, the Prime’s duty is to protect it with his guidance. The Allspark and Vector Sigma are equally important, but unlike the Matrix, they’re not capable of protecting themselves. They need a guardian. Cybertron needs a guardian. And that’s what Primes are for. We’re not just ‘getting along with people’ as you put it earlier.” Hot Rod made a small sound of regret. “We’re the Beacon of Hope. We’re the protectors. We’re the leaders. And to be a good Prime, a candidate needs to be courageous, generous, brave, inspirational, empathetic, responsible as well as honest.”

“I’m courageous!” The young mech cheered. Optimus' vents huffed.

“Of course you are.”

Hot Rod smiled and looked back. He steered the telescope in all directions until he spotted a random green mech with a tiny version of Cybertronian, a sparkling in the centre of Iacon. It’s plating was still grey and soft and their limbs looked like they were just formed. The bitlet must have had like a few mega-cycles at best. They were playing Cube. The sparkling scored a goal, cheering and jumping as their caretaker ran to them and lifted them up. There was nothing but pride visible in his optics. Hot Rod’s smile faded when he saw how happy they both seemed. Optimus noticed that.

“Is something wrong, Hot Rod?”

“No...” The youngling murmured, stepping away from the telescope. “Nothing.”

“You seem troubled.”

“No, I’m not.” He felt a weird bitter feeling towards the scenery he just witnessed. There was something familiar about it, yet so unlike. Something that made him disappointed and even angry. Angrier than before. “Alright, lesson learned. Can we go back now?”

“Hot Rod.” Concerned, Optimus went closer and put his servo on the red mech’s shoulder. Hot Rod shook it off as soon as possible, turning around with irritated expression and errupting: “I said I’m fine!”

There was a silence...

After a long second the young Autobot understood what he did. His angered gaze softened, shifting from anger to utter shock. His bright blue optics widened as he saw how expresionless Optimus' faceplates have become.

“... Optimus, I...” Before he found any more words to respond with, the Prime kneeled before him, putting his servos on his shoulders which made him step back. The older mech’s optics were unnaturaly soft as he spoke. 

“Hot Rod... Can you tell me what is wrong?”

“Nothing, I just-”

Optimus cupped both sides of the Speedster’s helm. "Hot Rod… I can see that something is bothering you. I just want you to know that I am not your enemy.” Hot Rod looked down.

“I know you’re not…”

“I promise I’m not going to judge you. You can tell me if something is bothering you.”

“… I…” It was then when the bigger mech pulled Hot Rod closer. He didn’t understand. He was certain that the Prime would be fuming! And yet, he couldn’t help but relax. The young Autobot slightly narrowed his optics, resting his forehead against his mentor’s shoulder as he wrapped his arms around his back. A childish move to make, but highly comforting. Optimus returned the embrace, trying to avoid his student’s spoiler. 

“What am I going to do with you?” He ex vented, feeling as the red Speedster’s grip tightened. His plating already started warming up with sparks bursting from the other’s optics.

“I’m sorry…” Hot Rod mumbled softly, cracking his voicebox a bit. “I didn’t mean to, I just… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

“No, it’s not!” His spark pulsed dangerously, leaving a rageing trail of energy against Optimus’ chest. Another outburst and another long pause. “All I do is diappointing you! Everything I do lately affects you in the wrong way! I hate it! And when I’m trying to stop, it just gets worse! And I’m so terrible to you! I just... I don’t know why! I don’t want you to have so many problems with me, but it just keeps happening! I understand if you’re disappointed in me. I would be furious! Furious enough to pass the Matrix to someone else and give me away-”

“I’m not disappointed in you.” Optimus interrupted, moving his servo to Hot Rod’s helm. “I am far from being disappointed, or furious. But what you did today, what you’ve been doing lately, is very dangerous and inappropriate. This time you were in alot of luck that it ended only on scratches, but the next might not be as optimistic. And if anything bad would have ever happened to you, I would never forgive myself.”

“ I know…”

“And I’m not going to give you away. I love you too much to do such thing, I hope you know that.”

“I know… I’m sorry.”

“And I understand where your behaviour is coming from. You’re still young, rebelious, trying to find your path. I was there too. We all were. But that is why you need to be more careful from now on, so you won’t get into bigger trouble.”

“I... I don’t know where to start... I... I don’t know how can I do that. I don’t want you, or Moon, or anyone to have trouble because of me. I don’t want you to stop caring about me because of that...”

The Prime felt ashamed. Alpha Trion was right, Hot Rod needed him the most and he didn’t even notice that until now. He was glad that he had this chance to talk.

“I am not going to stop caring about you because of your flaws, Hot Rod.” Optimus replied. “It is my duty as a caretaker. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes and that’s perfectly alright. But you have to make sure that they won’t cause you, or anyone else any harm.”

“You never make any mistakes...”

“I do. Especially when I was younger. Orion Pax, as well as Optimus Prime, are not perfect themselves. The Primes are flawed too. In fact, Optimus just made one... He haven’t been a caretaker he was supposed to be for you from the very start.”

“Wh...” Hot Rod pulled back, facing his mentor. “No, Optimus, you didn’t-”

“I’m sorry too, Hot Rod.” The Prime’s optics shifted to sadness and solid regret as he attempted to look away. “I really am. That situation could have been easily avoided if I’ve been there for you.”

“And I should’ve been a better student! I want to be a better student!”

“And I want to be better caretaker.”

Both of the mechs went silent again. They tried to continue the conversation, but they weren’t sure what should they feel. Should they be mad at one another? Should they feel sad with each other? Should they just stop? Who should be disappointed in who and for how long?

It didn’t take long for the two to make some small chuckles.

“That’s... So stupid.” Hot Rod commented, hiding his faceplates in the Prime's chest..

“It propably is." The older mech pressed his audial to the Speedster's side of the helm, smiling softly. "But we definetly should learn from it.”

“Yeah...”

“I say we both try to put more effort this time. I am going to be a better caretaker, but I need you to cooperate with me.”

“I will. I want to.”

Optimus couldn’t help but smile. He cupped Hot Rod's head and brought their foreheads together, offlining his optics. The younling did the same. Hot Rod couldn’t help but feel a strong bond brushing between the touch. It made him feel fluffy and safe at his spark, like there was someone who he could count on. The closest family he’d ever get and someone who truly cared about him.

Soon, they both pulled back, making a distance between each other.

“So...” Hot Rod found some strong courage to look up. “The lesson's over?”

“It appears to be.” Optimus stood up.

“Then we’re going home?”

“Hm... Do you want to go home yet?”

“Uh... yeah.”

“Honestly?”

“Not really.”

“Well then," They Prime put his servo on his student’s shoulder. His faceplates crossed a sudden grin. "we still have some time in our servos. Do you have any suggestions of where should we go now?”

“Wait, really?” Hot Rod tilted his head.

“Really,” Optimus nodded. “If we are to begin somewhere, we should start with some bonding activity. And who better knows the best places on Cybertron than my problematic, yet highly talented student?”

"Well, when you put it like that...” Hot Rod grabbed his chin, smirking. It usually would’ve sent Optimus some red flags, but not this time. ”There’s a really cool race track in Kalis, it’s opening wasn’t that long ago.”

“Oh?” Optimus’ grin only widened. The red Speedster never knew the older mech could do that. “Is that a challenge?”

“It can be if you’re capable of keeping up.” He crossed his arms, hearing his caretaker snorting amusingly.

“Don’t judge a truck by it’s size, young one. I may not be as young and energetic as I used to be, but I am still nothing but fast.”

“I’d like to see that.”

“If you will be able to keep up, who knows.” The Prime shrugged. Hot Rod laughed. “It’s on!” He cheered, pointing his digit at his mentor as he walked down the stairs. His optics were filled with raging determination.

“It certainly is.” The Prime chuckled, following. The whole conversation filled him with noting but relief and hope. He received a second chance and he was about to make a good use of it. For Cybertron. For Hot Rod.

And things could only get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chaper legitly took a month to write, being constantly rewritten and perfected. I hope ya'll like it because to me it was surely a ride (-w-)


	5. Jailbreak part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big day is here! Starscream and the others are going to make their plan reality and try to escape from the Alchemor! Introduction of the Decepticon crew.

The day began just like any other.

No, better than any other, actually. The inspection from Ultra Magnus went excellent. The prisoners were obedient as ever. The renovations of an old storage of Energon rations were finally finished. It was supposed to be a very good day in the Alchemor…

What happened then?

—-

After leaving Megatron, Ravage decided to get back to Soundwave and tell him about the state he found Megatron in. His mind was occupied with questions. Many, many questions. Mostly, how long was Megatron kept in the sector D-16? Why was he in the state he was? What happened to him to deserve such treatment? The other Decepticons weren’t kept like that, were they? Whatever was the reason, he knew that his ex leader must have suffered alot. He was an immensely strong mech, but even he had his limits. There was no denying that he looked absolutely miserable as now.

On his way, he heard a couple of soft taps coming from one of the left openings of the vents. Someone knew that Ravage was inside and tried to get his attention. The cat followed the sounds and ultimately recognized the place they were coming from. He went closer to the crate behind which was creeping a tall shadow with bright golden optics curiously peeking at him.

“Psst…” The shadow whispered as the Minicon crawled closer. The owner of the voice had a slightly high, melodic voice which only one mech on Cybertron was famous for. Ravage put his head on a closed crate where the mech who spotted him was sitting.“You were visiting Megatron, were you not?”

“Yes, I did.” The Cassete whispered back. “I was about to raport to Soundwave about what I saw.”

“I see.” The shadow slightly narrowed his optics. “How is our leader feeling today?”

“Terrible. Although, he seemed hopeful when I told him about your plan.”

“Oh?”

“He is really counting on you, Starscream. All of us are counting on you.” Ravage saw like the shadow moved his servo to support his head. A bright blue light of his electric cuff was shining on his plating which made his grin visible.

“How someone as loyal as you keep questioning his superiors is beyond me, Ravage. I can more than assure you that by tomorrow everyone will get their freedom.”

“So you keep saying.” Ravage twitched his audials, frowning a bit.

“Be more optimistic, will you?” Starscream replied, looking around before leaning closer and lowering his voice even more. “Everything is set up. Just remember, when you’ll hear the signal, you let him in.“

“And what about Megatron?”

“I’ll take care of him myself. You just follow my instructions and make sure everyone else do too, especially the… rookie. Now, scram! I need to get some rest before the big day.” Starscream waved his second servo in a shooing manner, flashing the Casette with the blue light on his wrist. Ravage made a soft growl. He absolutely hated when someone was speaking to him like that. Nonetheless, he nodded and returned to his path.

He had to yet decide if he truly trusted Starscream. The others, especially Megatron did, but he was a whole different story. They were all desperate to get out. He had no reason to distrust him, but also had no reason to trust. He tried to keep Megatron’s spirit high and assured him that everything will be fine, but the Minicon was unsure himself. But no matter from which way he looked, he had to at least try be ‘optimistic’. After all, what was the worst that could happen? They already were in the worst case scenario.

After the cat disappeared, Starscream returned to his berth facing the ceilling. On his faceplates appeared a small smirk as he shut down his optics, slipping into recharge. 

“Tomorrow everyone will get their freedom.”

—–

Ravage finally reached his destination: a lone cell at the end of the corridor in sector B. He crawled closer towards the vent which was connected to the inside and tapped a few times on the crate covering it with his tail. Almost immediately, another tall figure showed up and covered the light of the cell. This time the person appeared to have a bright red visor which shined at Ravage with nothing but warmness. The Casette couldn’t help, but start waving his tail due to an intense feeling of familiarity rising within his spark as he recognized a very familiar bond between them.

“Megatron is still alive.” Ravage whispered, leaning closer. “He is kept in the lowest level of the Alchemor, cell D-16. He is… in a terrible environment.”

:Megatron…: A deep, metallic voice spoke.

“He is indeed isolated and unable to move. They made out of him a lab rat of some sort. I can’t really tell any details, but it doesn’t look good. He’s... absolutely miserable.” Ravage felt like something just boiled inside of the mech’s spark. Understandable. He wouldn’t stand the thought of his closest friends tortured as well.

“Starscream said to follow the plan. After I’m done with my part I can return to you and-”

:Ravage..:

“I’ll be fine, Soundwave. You know I can sneak past the guards. Don’t worry, I’m going to free you.”

:No.:

“W… what?”

:Ravage. I need you to help Megatron.:

“Starscream is going to take care of him, you’re the priority and-”

:Soundwave: Fine. Megatron: Is not. Ravage’s priority: Help Megatron, no matter the cost.: Soundwave spoke in his formal tone. Everything spoken in his formal tone was an official task. The task Ravage couldn’t disobey no matter how much he disagreed with it. 

“… Alright.” The Casette huffed, looking down. “Then I’ll help Megatron.” The ex Decepticon placed his servo on the crate. Without any thinking, Ravage did the same. He placed his own pawn in the same place Soundwave did and pressed his forehead against it. The mech followed.

:Everything is going to be alright, Ravage.” Soundwave assured “Soon, we’ll be able to reunite.:

“Yeah...” Ravage closed his opics, making a low purring sound. “I hope so...”

—–

“Rise and shine, Screamer!” One of the bigger guards opened Starscream’s cell, finding the Seeker laying on his berth. “Refueling time!”

The ex Deception second in command stood up and walked to the guard without raising his head.

“What’s the matter?”The guard smirked, checking Starscream;s cuffs and gently patting him on his back. “Finally out of insults?” The Seeker grinned.

“What can I say…” He finally looked at the guard and shrugged. “I decided to not waste my talent on some puny insults.”

“Must be some revoluitianery day for you, huh?”

“Oh, you have no idea.”

—–

Starscream was brought to a refueling station. All of the other prisoners were already there and the place was almost full. Thankfully the Seeker spotted a free space next to rather big, blue Cybertronian in the corner of the room and decided to sit next to him. As he walked closer and sat down, he noticed a characteristic eyepatch on the mech’s left optic which lit up every time he took a sip of his Energon.

“Starscream.” The mech greeted, not making any eye contact.

“Breakdown.” Starscream replied, taking a sip of his own ration. They haven’t spoken a single word ever since. Occaionally, one of them would peek and find the other playing with his cuffs. A few minutes passed and a guard walked to the table. He scanned Starscream and Breakdown with his purple visor, trying to take the Seeker’s empty cube away. Without any warning, Starscream grabbed his arm and whispered:

“All hail Starscream.” The policebot’s optics flashed. The massive bot straightened up.

“That’s your big chance, Barricade.” The Seeker stood up, pretending to trying to walk away. “Make sure to keep up.”

Barricade watched as the ex Viosian prince was taken away by the two officers. Breakdown decided to ask for a second cube. The officer excused himself out of the room and decided to head to the Guard House.

As he walked, he passed Prowl which turned around and walked to him.

“Barricade.” He called out. The officer froze. He took a deep ex vent before turning around and facing him. “Shouldn’t you be on your shift right now?”

“Oh yeah, I should be.” Barricade replied, trying to keep his expression as calm as possible. Starscream told him what he was supposed to say just in case someone grew suspicious. The problem was, this was Prowl. Chances of him not getting suspicious about anything was so low that it was meeting with the Cybertron’s very core. “It was... rescheduled.”

“Rescheduled?” The policeebot rose his optical ridge. Barricade panicked a bit.

“Y... yea-” Suddenly, Prowl groaned, making the other jump.

“What is even happening today?!”

“What do you mean?” The purple visioned enforcer asked, seemingly not knowing what was going on.

“Everything is going crazy! Your shift was rescheduled, Chase was assigned to move two sectors away, and I have my patrol’s schedule completely changed! I’m late to Iacon, even though I just received a memo about the change! Is Ultra Mangus developing a brainrust or some scrap?!”

“Beats me.” Barricade shrugged. “I just follow my orders.” Prowl signed. “Alright. I guess I have to go on a patrol now. Hope nothing else changes when I get back... To be honest, I don’t want to leave you after what happened yesterday.”

“Prowl!” Barricade shouted angrily. “We agreed to not talk about what happened yesterday!”

“Yes, but it’s not normal for you to fall into stasis in the middle of the day like that.”

“I was tired.” The enforcer tried to defend himelf.

“You were babbling about flying Turbofoxes after onlining. Skyfire had to carry you all the way home.”

“No details! It was embarrasing, okay?!”

“I know. Thus I am asking again, stop making excuses and please consider seeing a medic. ”

“... You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“No.”

“... Alright.” The enforcer huffed. “After my work I’m going straight to the doctor.”

“And what evidence do I have that you’re going to keep your word?” Prowl narrowed his optics and put his servos on his waist. Barricade only smiled softly.

“Have I ever didn’t?”

“I...” The blue visioned officer sighned, rubbing his faceplates with his servo. “Good point.”

“You’re uh... You’re propably should be going.”

“Darn right I should.” Prowl walked past the other policebot patting him on the shoulder. “Take care, little brother. And be careful today.“

“Yeah…” Barricade turned around, smiling to the other. “You too.”

The policebot felt conflicted as he headed to his destination, leaving Prowl behind. “You too…”

\-----

He was let in by another guard who just finished her shift. He was trusted among the others. The policebot walked to the control panel and opened the system. The plans of the Alchemor appeared on a holographic screen before him. He opened his chassis, pulling out a datapad, a long cable, and a pendrive. Barricade layed down all of the items, connecting cable to the datapad and later to the computer. He was about to plug the pendivce in, but suddenly he heard a loud: WAIT!

And so he stopped.

The voice was inside of his head. Barricade lowered the pendrive and began staring at the controlling panel. A sudden question popped out of nowhere and started bothering him immensely.

What was he doing?

Freeing dangerous prisoners? Betraying his proffesion? Betraying his brother? And in the name of what? Starscream had literally nothing to give. Nothing to promise at all. The enforcer could easily dismiss him the day the Seeker offered him a deal. At least... He would. But he couldn’t. Because Starscream indeed had something to offer.

Barricade was sick.

Barricade was immensely sick, and it was his fault he let himself into such state. His brother and others started noticing that something was wrong with him, but no one knew how serious it was. No one. Except Stasrcream and a certain fragger of a scientist. They could help him find the cure. He would be well and normal again. But again, at what cost?

He was trusted among the others. Ultra Magnus himself praised how good of an enforcer he was. And Prowl… Prowl seemed so proud of him. Was he really about to destroy it all? To become a Decepticon?

One the other hand, he was already too far. He snatched Ravage inside the Alchemor, helped him hack into the system, plan a break out. ‘All hail Starscream’ password was his idea. It started as a joke, but Starscream was strangely fond of it and it stayed. If anyone would find out, he’d be done. And yet he was still strugging. Maybe if he now stepped back, explained everything to Prowl, he’d not be called a traitor, or worse, a monster. Mybe he still had a chance to escape from this madness. Mybe he wouldn’t be locked and given the same treatment as Megatron. Maybe there was still a way out. Maybe... Maybe.

“Hey!” Barricade froze. He turned away and saw another police bot. “What are you doing in here?”

“I, uh…”

“This is not an arcade game!” The policebot shouted, stepping closer. “Besides, shouldn’t you be somewhere else? That’s my shif-” He glanced down at Barricade’s stuff, his optics narrowed.

“I- I can explain!” The enforcer squeaked.

“Better do that quickly, pal.” The other frowned, reaching for his audial to open a comn link. “Because right now you’re in alot of-AAH!!!” Without any warning, Barricade grabbed the mech’s arm and pulled out his taser, aiming at his spark chamber. The officer yelled from the charge and immediately fell on the ground, falling into stasis.

“Frag! Frag!” The enforcer put his servo on his mouth, muffling the shout. He kneeled and checked the other’s chest. The plating was burnt, but the spark was still glowing. He’d live, but with memories of that situation.

“Frag!!!”

There was no going back now. If Barricade somehow avoided the accusation for treason, he would be sentenced for attacking another guard for sure! He sealed his fate and the only way out was with the Decepticons!

The policebot dragged the unconcious mech to the wall and shut down the door of the room. He should’ve done that before! He should’ve locked himself so no one would see him! And now was too late to fix his stupid mistake!

Barricade returned to the panel, activating all available cameras. He reached for the pendrive and plugged it in, succesfully this time. Next, the enforcer tapped his audial, activating a private comn link with an unknown number.

“It’s me.” He whispered, staring at the camera in the refueling station. “Yeah... It’s open.” And soon after, an unusual spark signature appeared in the entrance of the building. It began appearing and diappearing, creating a trail heading to the elevator which lead the bottom of the building.

Barricade felt like he was about to pass out. Perhaps later, but definetly not now. First he had to finish what he foolishly started.

—–

Back at the refueling station, two prisoners were walking to take their seats in the corner of the room while chatting with each other. Without any warning, they were brutally pushed forward which made them lose their balance and both of their Energon cubes fell out of their servos, colliding with the floor. They smashed into thousands tiny pieces, while making a big mess around. The furious prisoners turned around and met frowning Breakdown.

“The frag was that supposed to be?!” One of them growled, clenching his fists.

“I’ll tell ya the frag was that supposed to be!” The one eyed mech shouted back even louder. “Your fat afts were blocking my way!”

In a matter of seconds, one of the prisoners curled his shaking servo into a fist and swung it at Breakdown which quickly dodged it. The one eyed mech punched the other in the faceplates, making him fell on the ground and knocking the nearest table where the other prisoners were sitting at.

“Who do ya think yer are?!” The prisoners sitting there stood up, shouting at the mech.

“The name’s Breakdown.” Breakdown smirked, stepping forward and smashing his fists together. “The guy who will beat the ever living scrap out of you!”

The other mech helped his friend on his petes and both of them rushed at Breakdown, knocking a couple of chairs on their way. The prisoners sitting at the knocked out table joined as well. One thing let to another, and soon more prisoners were getting involved. A gigantic fight resulted in a matter of mere seconds. The guards finally decided to interfere.

“Do something!” Shouted one of them. The second reached for a pilot connected to prisoners’ cuffs. He activated the desactivacting shock, but nothing happened. He widened his optics, looking at his friend who tried to do the same.

“It’s not working!”

“Call backup!”

—–

Barricade started searching through several different information nets and found the Alchemor’s databade. He copied as much of the data as he could; profiles, plans, records, and tranfered them on the dapad. As soon as he finished, he tapped his comn link again.

“All clear, Ravage.” He said pointlessly quiet.

A few seconds later on the screen of the computer appeared a warning. A major difficulty was found in the system. Someone hacked the computer, deleting everything the guard has copied.

Barricade walked out of the room, seeing as the guards moved from their shifts and ran towards the sector A. The policebot ex vented, squeezing the datapad in his servo. He really hoped that the plan was working.

So far so good as some say, right? It all should be over soon. Hopefully soon enough for them to escape before Prowl would return. Primus forbid if he found out.

—–

“What in the name of Solus’ shiny aft is going on in here?!” Prowl was out of focus. He forgot his badge on the way to the capital, so he had to return to the Alchemor before jumping in the shuttle. Thank Cybertron he did, because apparently something was very wrong. Once he stepped to the long hallway of the Alchemor’s hall, he saw a big group of enforcers running towards the refueling station which he heard a gigantic commotion coming from. He stopped one of the running guards and frowned.

“Care to explain what the frag is happening?!” 

“There’s a big fight between the prisoners!” A young mech replied. “Their servo cuffs stopped working!”

“Then why isn’t anyone fixing them by now?!” The policebot let go of the mech and ran towards the nearest evelator.

He had to reach the Core Room. Quickly!

—–

Starscream was sitting at the edge of his berth with crossed legs when the lights in his cage began flickering. He thoughtfully looked up, hearing quick movement in the vents, and soon, a commotion outside of his cell.

Without any words spoken, the Seeker stood up and walked to the electric bars. The guards seemed rather panicked. They were switching between each other, shouting and pointing somewhere. The ones that stayed behind kept a close watch on the prisoners.

If he was guessing right, those were the results of his plan.

Starscream smirked, a pleased glimpse of excitement sparked in his golden optics.

He was going to remember this day dearly.

—–

Prowl arrived at the opening of a center called the Core Room. It was a place from which Alchemor took all of it’s power from. The main energy source was a giant Energon crystal connected to a mother computer which controlled everything within the prison, including the electric cuffs prisoners were holding.

When the guard stepped out of the elevator, the first thing he saw were the guards laying on the floor. He leaned down and checked one of their life signals. Thankfully they were still alive. Someone just knocked them down.

Prowl reached for his gun and slowed his movement. He hid behind the wall between the opening and peeked inside the Core Room.

He saw a dark figure messing with the system on the mother computer. The figure didn’t look like an enforcer at all. Prowl hid back, charging his weapon. He took a deep ex vent before looking back and aiming at the hacker. To his surprise, no one was there anymore.

Before he could step out of his hiding spot, he felt an incoming impact on his left. He turned around and ducked, just in time to avoid a powerful punch thrown at him which bend a wall behind him.

Without wasting any time, the enforcer threw a swift kick at his attacker’s chest, causing him to step back. Prowl threw his own hit which met with a quick shielding of the other’s shoulder. The mysterious bot quickly turned around and punched the guard in his stomach, causing him to drop his weapon. Disoriented policebot tried to aim at the hacker’s facplates, but a bright red optic kept flashing his vision.

“Who the frag are you?!” Prowl shouted in rage as he attempted another kick in the other’s direction. The hacker catched his pede in the mid air and rolled the guard over.

“As far as I am concerned, it is none of your buisness.” The mysterious figure stated, chilling deep voice making Prowl’s Energon freeze in his lines. The policebot grunted his denta and kicked him with his free pede, causing him to back off. He jumped back up, raising his fists. It was the first time he was able to take a look at who he was dealing with.

The mysterious mech was a tall, purple and black mech with a blaster instead of an arm and an insignia pratcically illegal on his stomach. A Decepticon insignia. The most characteristic thing however was his face, or rather the lack of it. He had a single giant red optic which covered all of his head and antennas on it’s sides instead of audials. Prowl saw him on the list of the most wanted criminals a couple of years ago. Stated supposedly gone.

“Shockwave, right?” The policebot snarked before rushing at his opponent again. “Just what was your plan in here?!”

The mech named Shockwave dodged the series of incoming hits, waiting for Prowl to open. When there was a chance, he tried kick him in the back. This time Prowl was prepared and the Decepticon received one powerful punch in the optic. The intruder backed down, while the guard rolled his shoulders and picked up his gun. He ran to Shockwave and charged a shot to his head.

“How did you get here?! Are you working with someone?!”

No reply.

“Not gonna talk?” The enforcer growled in a deep deadpan tone. “Fine. Be that way. Let’s see what Ultra Magnus has to say about all of the mess you’ve made.”

After the seconds of no contact, Shockwave finally rose his head.

“Firstly, he has to learn about it.” he replied calmly. Before Prowl could react, the Decepticon disappeared in a flash.

“… What the…” The policebot murmured, looking around. He spotted Shockwave back at the computer, preparing to shoot him with his blaster.

Prowl had enough.

Out of pure self defence reflex, he fired his gun at the intruder. Suddenly, Shockwave lowered his weapon and when the time was right, he disappeared again. Prowl’s optics widened.

“NO!” His bullets hit the computer, breaking it’s screen and burning it’s console. The whole room filled the flashing red light and an alarm sounded, informing about a major malfunction. Power was dropping very quickly.

“What have I done...”

—–

All sectors filled the alarm. In a matter of seconds, all power was lost and the crates were opened. The prisoners were the first to notice. At once, they all started running out and hitting the random officers on their way. They started scattering around. The communication centre was out of power so calling for backup was impossible.

Starscream stepped out of his cell the last. His servo cuffs lost all of it’s energy at this point and he ripped them off his wrists. The Seeker straightened up, folding his arms behind his back and started walking forward, awoiding all of the chaos. Suddenly, a few inches before him a laser bullet hit the ground. The Seeker looked around and he spotted a femmie rushing at him with a charged gun.

“Freeze!” She yelled threateningly. Starscream did nothing except giving her a small smirk. As she went closer, she felt a strong grip on her shoulder. Without any warning, she was immediately thrown back and landed on a group of other enforces. The ex second in command faced the mech who saved him. It was Breakdown.

“Prison made you too lazy to fight on your own?” He snarked. Starscream smiled, walking closer to the mech.

“What is the point of fighting when I know that is not required? I simply decided to trust your reflex.”

“Ha!” The one eyed mech chuckled in a loud raspy voice, crossing his arms. “Primus, I missed your attitude so much!”

“We all missed it, Breakdown. We all missed it.”

“Ah good!” Another voice spoke behind them. Barricade ran towards them, holding a datapad in his servo. “I managed to keep up!”

“Oh, yes...” Strascream’s smile immediately dropped. “You surely did.”

“Looks like we have a fresh man.” Another voice spoke, this time from the above. A female seeker landed next to the enforcer, which stepped back, and scanned him with her red optics. She streched her long purple wings and put her servos on her slender waist. A soft smirk crossed her lipplates as she took a look at the others. “But it’s sure good to meet some old faces as well.”

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Barricade rose his optical ridge.

“Slipstream.” She offered him a servo. “Your new pilot, I assume.”

“Ah...” The enforcer accepted it. “I... never knew we’d have one.”

“Why. Starscream never mentioned me?”

“No... Actually, not really.”

“We’re still short of a few members.” Starscream cut out, scanning all of the new arrivals.

“Right... Shockwave is delivered, Soundwave is still stuck, and Megatron…” Barricade walked to the ex Decepticon second in command and offered him a datapad. “This will lead you to him. Your alt modes should be activated by now.” Starscream nodded and took the item. “Shockwave said to meet him at the magazine.”

“Slipstream, free Soundwave! The rest head to the magazine!” Starscream ordered and scanned the room. “I’ll get Megatron!”

“Wait, one more thing!” Starscream turned around. Barricade opened his palm and showed him a small metal box. It had a big red button on it’s top and a Decepticon insignia on it’s side. “Ravage told me to give you this. I don’t know what this is, but Shockwave wants you to deliver it to Megatron.”

Starscream eyed the package before taking it and nodding. Soon, the whole group split up. Slisptream transformed and flew to the left, Barricade and Breakdown headed in the right and Starscream ran forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty pleased that this chapter was finished sooner than I expected. I never wrote a prison break before so this is a pretty interesting experience. Hope ya'll liked it, all hail Starscream, the glorious gremlin king -w-


	6. Jailbreak part 2

Ravage escaped from the vents, right in the middle of the chaos in the main centre. His vision mixed white, blue and grey guards with prisoners of every shape and size possible. In the situations like that, he was glad that Primus didn’t give him much inches to work with. He ran past prisoners, dodging bigger bot’s pedes and falling frames, trying to get to Soundwave’s cell. He had to make sure that he and the rest were safe. He just had to. The Cassette was half throught the way, when suddenly, he remembered something.

Ravage’s mission:

Ravage stopped, clawing the floor’s surface.

Protect Megatron…

No matter the cost.

Those words hit him hard. Very, very hard. 

Soundwave wanted him to help his leader. He trusted him enough to give him such important task. Starscream was propably on his way already, but could he know where to go? How would he react seeing Megatron in the state he was? Or better yet, how would Megatron react, seeing Starscream after eons? Considering how desperate he looked seeing him, Ravage guessed that it would be a pretty intense spark attack. Besides, would the Seeker be able to help him as he promised? Despite all of the assurings, Ravage still couldn’t trust him with something like that. With anything else he was willing to try, but not with this.

“…Frag it.“ The Cassette hissed, turning around and running back to the nearest vents.

Mission first, Soundwave later.

Besides, his carrier was more than capable of taking care of himself. Ravage was going to make sure that Megatron was alright, then reunite with others. Simple task, simple result.

—–

As soon as the electric bars disappeared, Soundwave broke his cuffs and ran out. He rushed to the prison’s Closed Section, which every confiscated weapon in the Alchemor was kept in. He broke it’s doors and started searching.

He ran around, looking at every box, every glass, and every capsule he could find. Checked every number, every detail, trying to remember something familiar from millions of years ago. His spark was pulsing, unable to cool down. A very strong emotion was tossing his mind in all directions, telling, and even shouting, to continue.

And finally, finally, he found what he was so eagerly looking for: Four small capsules standing in the line between a desactivated bomb, and a huge canon in the corner of the room.

Soundwave picked one of the weapons he found near him and sent a powerful electric wave from his digit to activate it. He shot the capsules’ locks one by one, stepping back. There was a silence before the capsules opened with a hiss and a chilling mist covered the atmosphere around. A couple of seconds later, two shadows escaped from the first and the second ones. They rolled in the air and landed in front of Soundwave, which immediately dropped the weapon, optics widening.

In the capsules were hidden the red and black, and purple and black Minicons; Twins. Both of them gasped and smiled after noticing Soundwave.

“Boss!” They cheered, rushing to Soundwave and jumping on him, almost tackling him with a hug. The mech held them tightly, never knowing that he could laugh and cry so hard at the same time.

“Boss, are you alright?!” The red Minicon squeaked, searching for any kinds of injuries on the mech’s chassis with a worried look.

“Of course he is, dummy!” The purple one cheered, happily pointing at his twin and resting his head on the ex Decepticon’s shoulder. “This is Soundwave! He’s always alright!”

In the second capsule something made a loud, screeching noise. A bird like Minicon flew out and made a couple of circles in the air, before landing on the mech’s shoulder and nuzzling it’s head to his audial. Soundwave happily pressed to the touch. 

When there was no response coming from the last cabsule, the mech started worrying. He put the Minicons down and came closer to it, kneeling and waving off the cool mist around. He spotted a small figure on the bottom of the capsule, shaking. He reached inside of it and picked the last Minicon up, holding it in his arms. It made a little squeak before looking up.

“S-Soundwave...?” The bat figure asked, feeling tiny sparkles forming in it’s big green optics.

:Ratbat.: Sounwave replied, leaning closer and pressing his forehead to the Casette’s head. :It’s me. It’s alright.:

“S-Soundwave! P-please don’t leave us again!“ The Minicon snuggled closer to the mech’s plating, wrapping his wings around his head. Soundwave felt like a huge hole in his spark was shrinking as the Minicons’ very own signatures began matching his, creating a long lost connection. The ex Deception kneeled again, letting all of the Minicons snuggle closer to him.

His Cassetes…

Rumble. Frenzy. Lazerbeak. Batrat.

At last, they were reunited.

“Well, isn’t this just the most adorable picture.” A femine voice chuckled behind them. Soundwave and his Minicons turned around, seeing Breakdown and Slipstream grinning at them with crossed arms. Barricade was behind them, peeking with somewhat awkward expression.

:Breakdown.:

“Good to see me, I know.” The one eyed mech smirked.

“You’re really hard to track, you know that?” The Seeker stated.

:Slipstream...” Soundwave stood up, still holding Ratbat and scratching him behind his audial. :I assume the operation is coming the way it was uspposed to.:

“Sure it is. Hey, isn’t that my old shoulder canon?” Breakdown got distracted by a grey canon next to the Minicons’ capsules.

“Y-yeah.” Barricade stuttered as the blue mech went closer and picked up the weapon. “Yeah, it’s yours. You can take it, but make sure to- WAIT, NO!”

Without any warning, Breakdown loaded and blasted the wall of the building with his canon, making a huge hole in it. The light of sundown filled the whole room. There were now two alarms, one informing about the major malfunction and the second coming from the Closed Section. Slipstream made an irritated huff and pinched her space between her optics while Barricade grabbed his healm in pure horror.

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!” He shouted, his voice getting higher.

“Just made an extra exit for us.” Breakdown grinned, installing his canon on his shoulder.

“THEY’RE GOING TO FIND OUT ABOUT EVERYTHING NOW!” The enforcer felt panic rising in him. Breakdown only rose his optical ridge.

“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

\-----

Prowl was stuck in the Core room. The doors shut down due to the deffence protocols only a licenced enforcer could shut down. Unfortunately, it had to be confirmed by the said enforcer from the outside. There was also no way of comunicating the others about what he saw. The room was deep underground and the communications were broken anyway. Everything the policebot was thinking about was why Shockwave was doing this? He silently scolded himself as soon as the most obvious of answers reached his brain module.

He tried to free the rest.

The enforcer ran to the computer and opened it’s insides, messing with it’s cables. He tried to pass the protocols, but unfortunately he was no hacker, nor an engineer. Prowl wasn’t completely sure if what was he doing was helping at all, but he had to try everything. He wasted alot of the precious time there and still nothing seemed to be working.

“Barricade!” He tried to comn his brother, hoping that his message would reach him. “This is Prowl! I’m stuck in the Core Room! I need your assistance immediately! Brother?!” He groaned loudly, standing up and ripping a couple of big cables behind the machine which were responsible for retrieving power. The energy was out before he ran to the Energon crystal, shot a few holes in it, and plugged the cables as hard as he could in them.

Lights began to flicker, and soon, the power was back again. The door opened. Prowl ran to the elevator as soon as possible and almost smashed it’s panel. The elevator moved up as he loaded his gun.

“This is Prowl!” He tried calling again. “As many as you can hear me, we have code red! I repeat! We have code red! Secure the Deceticons and have your optics around your head! The foe is highly unpredictable!”

The power wasn’t going to last long, but it was enough for him to get out and try cleaning this mess.

\-----

Suddenly, a giant blue groundbridge appeared in the opening Breakdown made.

“Our ride home!” Slipstream commented, towards it.

:What about Ravage?: Soundwave asked, picking up his Minicons.

“The lad’s fine, he’s with the rest!” Breakdown said, making a hurring servo motion. “Come on!”

“Are we breaking something?!” Rumble, cheered.

:No.: Soundwave replied, hearing a disappointed groan from his tiny underling. The group ran outside and jumped in the groundbridge.

Soon, some of the other prisoners found their way to the Section as well, flying away.

Such a shame the Autobots couldn’t fly.

\-----

Starscream arrived at the sector D. He turned his lights on as he entered a long, dark hallway. He looked around. The sector seemed to be empty. There were no cells; no guards; not a single soul could be heard. He passed some entrances from time to time; data file libraries, storages, each serving a different purpose.

The ex Deception second in command finally reached the end of the hallway, but also the end of the ground beneath him. A metal barrier was keeping him from something that seemed like another, lesser floor. He noticed an elevator next to him. He looked down again, seeing a small cell. A faint light was coming out of it. The cell was labeled ‘D-16′ on it’s side.

Finally. Starscream found him.

The building was running on it’s spare energy source, which was going to run out eventually as well, so he had to be quick.

The ex prince pulled out the small box Barricade gave him and pressed the red button on it’s top. It made a few transformation sounds before opening and turning into a weapon. A curious device, Starscream had to admit. It was a big, dark grey canon with purple accents, almost one third of the size of Starscream’s whole frame. A perfect weapon for bigger bots such as his leader.

Fusion canon.

Starscream’s greatest creation.

Created purely to win Megatron’s approval all those eons ago.

Unfortunately the mech wasn’t going to use it anymore. He personally informed Starscream about it.

Such a shame it was going to be wasted...

Or perhaps not.

Starscream installed the canon on his arm and then aimed at the cell beneath him. He made sure to point it in just the right angle, targeting it’s centre. He narrowed his optics as he found the courage to charge the weapon.

As he liked to say, betraying a traitor wasn’t a treason, it was simply justice. He was just doing everyone a favor.

Without wasting any more time, the Seeker squeezed the trigger. Before he fired however, something painfully pushed him and ruined his shot as he fell. A powerful blast of energy missed the middle Starscream was aiming for and flew to the side.

—–

Megatron heard a commotion outside of his cell. He looked up, trying to see what was happening. His optics widened as soon as he saw a slender stream of energy coming right at him. Before he could react, the shot exploded, breaking through the wall and hitting the computer he was bound to. A qiant explosion erruted, reaching his frame on it’s way. The rebel shouted.

After a second he heard a soft click and before he knew, he was falling on the ground, painfully offlining his systems.

—–

“No!” Starscream cried out, seeing that he missed. He looked at his frame, glancing at his arm. Energon was streaming down, escaping from a stinging wound on his shoulder. Small claw marks were easily visible.

The Seeker noticed that a small figure landed next to him. It was Ravage.

“You…!” Starscream hissed, standing up. The Cassete backed off and disappeared in the darnkess before the Seeker could make another move.

The Decepticon second in command looked down again. Megatron’s cell fell apart, and a tall figure was visible on the ground, covered in burning junk. Starscream grabbed his arm and opened his comn link.

“Shockwave!” The Seeker grunted his denta, trying to sound as calm as possible. “Open the groundbridge! We need to get out of here!”

“Did your mission went as planned, Starscream?” The scientist asked, making Starscream growl out of irritation.

“Get us out of here! We’re done!”

“We’re incomplete. I don’t have access to Megatron’s locatio-”

“Megatron is dead!” The Seeker shouted, gently squeezing his injured arm. “Get us out! That’s an order!”

There was no response…

A few seconds later a blue and green portal appeared next to Starscream. The Seeker glanced down one last time before entering it and disappearing. 

He failed his mission.

He didn’t get a chance to finish what he started.

But there was no way Megatron could escape. Not after the damage he took. But he also couldn’t help but feel pity towards poor Ravage. He chose a wrong side.

It was the time the Decepticons needed a new goal. A new leader.

Someone competent. Someone who knew what his people needed.

Someone who was willing to get the job done and make any kind of true effort.

Someone like the ex prince of Vos.

All hail Starscream, the one true leader of the Decepticons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's that? A new chapter in such short time? That's right! Although, I feel like I could add something more to it, but I honestly can't wait to end this arc and move to the next stage. 
> 
> Ok, so what have we learned today? Starscream is being himself, Breakdown is kinda really dumb, and Soundwave and his children need to be protected. Also, Megatron is kinda there.
> 
> T.B.C.


	7. Jailbreak part 3

Alarm rang in his audials as he opened his optics. At first his vision was blurry and he felt extremely dizzy. It took a couple of seconds to recover from the sudden attack.

Megatron groaned in pain, placing his forehead against the floor and squeezing his optics tight. It hurt. His body hurt. A rageing burn stang him in the side. But there was also this weird feeling in his limbs. The Decepticon shook his helm, noticing that his vision became better. He slowly pushed his body up and looked around.

His spark stopped.

The machine he was connected to was broken. It’s parts were laying everywhere, inlcuding on his back. The mech shook off, feeling a strange freedom in his frame. If the system was destroyed, could it mean that...

Megatron looked down at his arms. They were… they were supporting the ground! The rebel could see them! He sat down, bringing his servos closer to his faceplates, slowly curling his digits up and down a few times.

He could move…

Megatron looked down at his legs. They were unchained as well. It all felt real, but was it really? Wasn’t this one of his visions? With a little bit of hesitations, the mech reached his servo towards his knee and touched it. The contact made him shiver a bit. It felt real...

It WAS real.

And so many memories came back with that one simple touch.

Megatron slowly moved back, flipping on his stomach. He placed his servos on the floor between his head, then straigntened his body up, bending one pede to his chest. He stopped for a second, clearing his mind, before bringing closer his second pede.

“Alright…” His vents made a loud hissing noise as his pointed digits gently scratched the ground. “I can do this…” The Decepticon tried to encourage himself as best as he could. His voice never felt as alive and welcoming. “Just…” He bounced on his pedes a couple of times, preparing himself to stand up. “One… two…THREE!”

Megatron pushed himself off the ground and forced himself on his pedes. He almost fell on his back as his legs wobbled and creaked, making him kneel. The rebel groaned softly, pressing his forehead to his leg, ex venting again.

It was alright. He was going somewhere. That was good... He could do it.

The Decepticon tried again. He grabbed the destroyed part of the machine near him and slowly stood up, finally catching his balance.

“See? You’re doing it!” He chuckled as he kept pushing himself to make a step forward. The mech forced his frame to move, trying to get used to walking. Some problems occured, but the rebel managed to limp out of the broken mess he once called his cell.

“He did it…” He made a muffled ‘ha’ noise and let his lipplates twist into a smile. “He did it! Good job, Strascream...” Megatron noticed the upper floor and an elevator next to it. A broken elevator.

Scrap.

He decided going closer and putting his servos on the wall before him. The rebel’s vents took in some air before putting one pede on the wall and digging his sharp digits into it. He started climbing up. The Decepticon felt his body streching and working, letting the old feeling of numbness faint. He almost fell when his pede slipped on the wall. Thankfully, he catched his balance in the last minute, making a startled yelp. He had to be careful. The mech grabbed the barrier with both of his servos and pulled himself up, pushing his body on it’s metal. He made a small swing and fell on the ground, rolling on his back. 

He was beyond out of practice...

Megatron shakingly stood up and started walking through the hallway, supporting himself with the wall. It was beyond terrifying. Each memory of the place was like a nightmare he lived in for maybe even millenias. It was uncomfortable, but he stayed with the best thoughts. Soon, he’ll meet his Decepticons. See their faces. Hear their comforting voices. Everything he hoped for all those years was coming true and there was nothing that could stop him now.

Once his legs got used to taking steps, he started walking a bit faster, letting go of the wall and grabbing his side. Soon, he reached the dead end and saw another elevator. It was much bigger than the last one. The rebel held both of the sides of it’s doors and started pushing them open. It hurt for a while, but he managed to rip them apart. He looked inside, seeing nothing. It was just a tall tube that went all the way up with a dark shadow on it’s top far far away.

“Oh Primus...” The rebel whispered as an idea appeared in his head. It was a bit crazy, and even stupid, but at he wanted to at least try..

Firstly, Megatron put his left pede in the tube, making sure that it won’t slip. Then, he carefully moved inside, supporting his back and legs with the wall and started sliding all the way up. This was going to take alot of time, but again, he was more than willing to take the risk.

Some time have passed and all that was occupying Megatron’s thoughts were the memories he was about to make and time he was about to catch up with. He was about to discover the world he wanted so eagerly to save. The mech became beyond curious of it. His spark was growing more excited with every second, making him more motivated than ever. Soon, all he went through was going to be worth it.

When he was half though the way, he sensed something. The tube’s biolights began to flicker and strange vibrations were sent from the above. The rebel looked up and to his horror, the ceilling was getting closer.

The elevator was moving.

“No..” Megatron whispered. “No, no, no, no, no!”

The only worse thing than staying in this prison forever was getting crashed before getting out, letting the previous effort get wasted. The Decepticon panicked as he tried to move back, but unfortunately did something he desperately tried avoid doing...

He slipped.

“SCRAP!”

He started falling all the way down and the elevator slowly moved closer. He tried to activate his T-cog, but the only response he got was horrifying pain in his spine. Megatron covered himself with his arms, waiting for the collision. Suddenly, he felt something flashing between his optics. He sweared he heard the sound of the Groundbridge. A few seconds later, he hit something. Megatron cried out of pain, landing on his back. When he onlined back his optics, he saw the moving walls and flickering lights all around him. To the mech’s surprise, he found himself on the ceiling of the moving elevator.

Before he could react more properly, he looked down and saw two officers pointing their digits at him. It wasn’t long until one of them reached for their gun and aimed at the bigger mech. Megatron decided to do something stupid again. He dipped his pointed digits to the surface of the tube, breaking it. He held onto it, leaving the elevator behind.

It was a quick relief. Considering the way the policebots were looking at him, they certainly wouldn’t be happy to meet him out of his cell. Suddenly, Megatron spotted something on the other side of the tube. A window. That was his only way out. Megatron smashed the wall more, making a place to fit his whole frame in. The window was just about under him. He took a quick ex vent and then jumped, letting go of the wall. He curled himself into a ball and crashed into the surface of the window. The Decepticon screamed in pain when the bits of metal reached his sensitive wires and scratched his frame as he landed on the gorund. He rolled on his back and hugged his legs to his chest, making high noises of suffering. Primus, was that a bad idea! He never expected it to hurt so much! The whole recovering process seemed like a sparkling discovering the world around for the first time. The rebel definetly should remind himself about some boundaries.

After his frame stopped acheing so much, the rebel looked up and saw a white corridor. He was at the end of it. Megatron was about to stand up when suddenly another flash of light appeared and his frame moved a few feets away. He started feeling weird all of the sudden. The Decepticon looked down and saw his spark chamber pulsing with some strange, raw energy.

“What is happening to me...?” He asked himself. The rebel brought his back to the wall, supporting himself as he stood up. Suddenly, another flash of energy brought him further. And another. And another.

“STOP!” Megatron commanded. For a brief second, it worked. The flashing stopped and then Megatron heard coming footseps towards him. His spark began to ache.

“Alright. Don’t stop. GET ME OUT!”

But his spark fell quiet.

“Oh, frag you too!” He snarled, backing off. A group of incoming enforcers noticed him and immediately rushed at him as he tried to escape.

“Starscream?!” He called his second in command, hitting the wall of the corner. He immediately pushed himself off of it and ran further. “Starscream, are you here somewhere?! Is this a part your plan?!” Suddenly, he was cut off by another group of policebots. He backed off, just in time for the previous enforcers to arrive.

“GET HIM!” They charged at him, pulling out their weapons.

“No... no...” Megatron shut down his optics. “STARSCREAM?!”

And suddenly, he felt like something flashed again. He couldn’t tell what happened, but after a brief second, the footsteps disappeared. The Decepticon shakinly opened his optics again.

“Huh?” He was somewhere else again. There were no guards chasing him anymore.

Thank literally everything.

He turned around a couple of times, studying the location. The place was too dark to see anything. The rebel was about to switch his night vision on, when suddenly a large mech broke through the wall and flew right in front of Megatron, causing him to jump in surprise. He immediately hit the stasis, leaving a huge hole in the wall. Megatron looked through it, seeing the absolute chaos. Guards and prisoners were fighting, objects were flying, insluts and cusses were thrown. What was happening?

In the heat of battle, Megatron spotted something from the distance. The Closed Section was opened, and a very visible moonlight was coming out of it.

The rebel’s optics sparkled. This was his chance! Propably the only one he’ll ever get! But he had to get through all of the mess around him.

He wasn’t going to turn back now. He had to at least try. Maybe this is what Starscream wanted him to do? Maybe they will meet outside of the building... Maybe he believed that Megatron would get out on his own... Whatever the reason was, a thought that he’ll meet his old comrades gave him strenght to move forward.

And so he did.

The rebel started running. He charged at his full speed towards the Section. Everything hurt like Pit and his body was still recovering from the numbness, but he kept going.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” One of the guards crossed his way. The Decepticon whacked him away, running further. His arm gave a quick and sharp response. He haven’t fought in a while, but he had to defend himself in order to pass.

As he continued running, he saw lights beggining to flicker, and soon they went completely out. He opened his night vision and saw bots approaching him. Some prisoners, some guards. None seemed like his allies.

“Time to practice.” He he said to himself, running faster.

Megatron slid his way out from the first approaches, then tackled another two. He jumped back, awoiding incoming hits, and grabbed two other mechs by their helms and rolled them over, right at the another group of bots blocking his path.

Faster! Faster! Faster! His brain continued shanting.

Don’t look back! It will all end soon! You have to keep running! Keep running! Faster! Speed up! Come on!

And finally, finally Megatron reached the Closed Section. He crushed some things on his way as he reached a gigantic hole in the building’s side. It was already the night time outside.

He wanted to jump, but the Alchemor was a very tall building. If he’d fell down, the guards wouldn’t be able to find his extinguished husk even in pieces. The Alchemor already had a dazzling reputation, and as Megatron could see, they took it to a completely different level. He SWEARED all those smelting pools around the building weren’t there before!

Things have changed drastically alright.

The last alt mode he picked was a jet, right? Megatron’s vents made a loud huff as he activated his T-cog in order to transform. Unfortunately, the only response he received was a sharp pain in his waist. Again with the numbness.

“No… No, no, no, NO!”

“Stay right there where you are!” The Decepticon’s panic only rose when he heard a familiar yell. It was Prowl, running at him with a squad of the other enforcers. Megatron pushed all of his force to his frame, once again trying to transform. The pain faded, but something was blocking his T-cog. He tried again, and again, and Prowl was getting only closer.

“Work!“ He yelled, terrified as ever. No, he wasn’t going to get captured again! He wasn’t going to spend the rest of his life as an isolated lab rat! He had to escape! Even if he was about to drop dead right there and then!

Try, after try, after try. They must have blocked his transformation capability, because it was only getting worse. Megatron started searching his frame for something that could have given away anything, when he felt like something jumped on his back. ‘Something’ pulled out it’s claws and scratched off a small controlling device between the rebel’s transformation seams and yelled: “Fly!”

Megatron immediately recognized the voice.

“Ravage?!”

“Go! go! go! Go! GO!”

Withouth any waring, Ravage kicked Megatron with his back paws, making him lose his balance. The Decepticon fell out of the hole with the cat on his back, right to the smelting pool.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!” Ravage shouted, sticking closer to the mech. Without any more thoughts, Megatron activated his T-cog. His body cracked in several different areas, his vents let out a huge cloud of smoke, and he finally was able to change his form. The rebel transformed into a standard model of Seeker jet. The Casette rested on his wings. Unfortunately, his cabin was too small for him to fit in.

“Of all the things you could have chosen!”

“It was the only thing Shockwave had!” The rebel activated his systems. His jet engines roared and errupted with pure fire, pushing him up. Minutes, maybe even seconds were separating them from the hot surface of the smelting pool. Megatron used all of his might to tilt his weight forward, pushing his cockpit out of the line of danger and straight to the air. Ravage yelped, feeling the heat coming from the pool. He tried his best not to fall. Megatron managed to surpress his shout. The Casette pushed his tail and claws between the jet’s plating, making the other scream out of pain.

“Watch it!”

“You watch where you’re flying!” Suddenly, a sudden laser beam passed them. Then another, and then another again. Ravage looked back, seeing the enforcers shooting at them. Megatron wasn’t able to avoid some of the bullets.

“Faster!” Ravage screamed.

“I can’t! I took too much damage!”

“Then do something!”

“Like what?!”

“I don’t know, just do-!” Without any warning, another sudden flash of light appeared and took both Megatron and Ravage with it. 

\-----

“NO!” Prowl roared and smashed the wall with his fist.

“Prowl...” The enforcer turned around and saw two femmies carrying an injured policebot. Prowl ran to him and checked his wounds. His whole chassis was burned.

“The Decepticons did it to you?” He asked, placing his servo on the other’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, those punks are going to pay for thi-”

“It was Barricade.” The policebot said in a shaky voice. Prowl’s optics widened. “Barricade did this... H-he helped them escape...”

“What are you talking about?” Other enforcer asked, just as astounded. “How do you know it was him?”

“I talked with him before he attacked me... I swear to Vector Sigma, that is the truth...”

“It can’t be.”

“Barricade is responsible for this?”

“Where’s he now?” The crowd of policebots began arguing. None of them could truly believe that one of them would be a traitor. Their voices were quickly lost by another, but Prowl could undertand them very well. And each statement against Barricade made his spark boil.

“Sir?” One of the femmies asked, looking at Prowl.

“Call Ultra Magnus! I don’t care when, I don’t care how, just do it!” The policebot ordered as he ran to the hangar.

“Where are you going?!” One of the enforcers asked. Prowl ignored them.

He refused to believe that his younger brother was responsible for this incident. He refused to believe that he was able to do such thing. Why would he? Why would he backstab not only him, but also himself?

No. Prowl knew his brother was innocent. And he was going to prove it.

—–

Location: Kaon. Canyon between Helex and Sea of Mercury.

A bright flash of energy appeared and therw out Megatron and Ravage. The Cassette fell on a rock, while the bigger mech transormed back and collided with the ground. Both of them fell into stasis immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole Jailbreak arc in just one month! *dabs*  
Anyway, I'm so glad I finished it so quickly! It might be a bit lower in the quality (at least according to me), but I hope you enjoyed it!  
Now, we're moving to the GOOD STUFF


	8. After the hurricane...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's happening after the jailbreak? Where did the Decepticons go? What happened to Megatron and Ravage? How will Optimus react to all of this? The answers are here!

Starscream jumped out of the Groundbridge, folding his wings behind his back.The Decepticons ran to him, just to find one of his arms injured and the second one welding the fusion canon. They all stared in shock while Starscream’s expression stayed emotionless.

“Starscream?” Breakdown asked in a concerned tone. The Seeker only hanged his head, grabbing his arm and walking past them to the medical bay.

“I need assistance.” He simply added on the passing. The group exchanged looks while Soundwave was just looking around, holding Batrat in his arms.

“I don’t sense him...” The Minicon said, looking at his carrier with worried optics.

:Starscream.: The ex prince slightly turned his head towards Soundwave. :Where’s Ravage?: The answer however was never given to him.

:Starscream!: Soundwave frowned, stepping forward. The Seeker bit his lower lipplating, stopping himself from errupting. He quickly calmed himself and tightened his grip on his arm.

“I’m going to answer all of the questions later. I just need some time to collect my thoughts.”

“Starscream, wait!” Breakdown ran to the Seeker, gently supporting his back. The others soon followed, leaving Megatron’s ex lieutenant behind.

“S-Soundwave? Do you think that Ravage-?” Soundwave patted Batrat’s helm, keeping his Cassettes and himself away from the terrible thought that Ravage didn’t make it.

There had to be a reason for all of this.

\-----

“That was absolutely AWESOME!” Hot Rod cheered, holding a gigantic raceing trophy above his head. “And have you seen that guy’s face when I crossed his path?!” Optimus chuckled, walking alonsgide his apprentice.

“How could I not? I was right behind you.”

“By the way, you have to teach me that cool trick with donuts! I didn’t know a truck could drive so fast!”

"What can I say," The Prime grinned, opening the automatic door of their house. “I’m an expert in ‘rolling out’.”

“Pfffft, get oooout!” Hot Rod laughed, remembering Optimus’ old catchphrase. If anyone else wondered where he got all of his cheese from, the answer would struck them like a lightning.

"I'm going to put it on our Accomplishment Shelf!" The youngling happily stated and ran down the corridor with the trophy.

"Just make sure Hot Rod Star won't get lost this time!" The older bot snorted, hearing a faint 'okay!' from the end of the hallway. He had to admit, he haven’t felt this happy in what seemed to be ages. Hot Rod seemed happy too. One look of his student’s smile made all of Optimus’ worries melt.

The Prime sighned, shutting down the door and activating the security system outside. He walked to his quarters, rubbing his back, when he saw his computer's screen flashing. Someone’s been trying to reach him.

"Must be from Ratchet..." The older mech murmured, remembering that the medic owed him a call. He stepped closer and tapped the screen, activating it. The Prime was surprised when he checked who truly called him at such late hour.

Ultra Magnus?

That was cretainly weird.

Optimus decided to call back. After a several seconds of silence, a tall blue Autobot with a big scar on his left optic appeared on his screen. The High Protector himself.

"Optimus Prime." The bot spoke with somewhat uneased tone. "We have a situation."

"Hello, commander." The Prime's vents let out a small huff. Of course, the peace couldn't last for long without him, could it? "I think I gave clear instructions that during a certain period of time all tasks and problems should be adressed to the High Ambassador Hound.”

"Yes, my apologies. But the situation requires your help more than anyone else’s."

"Well," Optimus titled his helm, raising an optical ridge. "what seems to be the problem then?"

"There’s been an... accident in the Alchemor." The commander replied, stuttering. He was never stuttering...

In a matter of seconds, the Prime became more interested in the conversation. His expression grew slightly more focused, serious. There was no laughing matter when it came to the Autobot prison. His shock only grew when Ultra Magnus moved away, showing a gigantic hole in the building. Optimus' spark stopped.

"A few cycles ago a gigantic jailbreak took it’s place in here, my Prime. Most of the prisoners went missing, including the Decepticons... All. Of the Decepticons, I’m afraid."

The Prime froze, widening his optics.

"We are currently investigating it and we’d be more than relieved if you’d-"

"I will be there shortly!" The Prime said and turned off his computer. He placed his servo on his pulsing spark, feeling an old fear sinking in. He took a break for less than a day and suddenly the fate of the planet’s peace he’s been working on for eons was at stake. How could he be so careless?

"Hey Optimus, I-" Hot Rod walked to the room, seconds before his mentor rushed out of it and headed to their storage. The puzzled Autobot followed him. "Optimus?"

The Prime desperately started looking for something. He broke a few things on his way, but he didn’t seemed affected at all. The youngling stood in the doorway with worried expression. 

"Is everything alright? Who was that?"

"I have to go." His mentor replied, picking up a few objects in panic. One of them was a metal ring which he placed on his wrist, and a small glowing Autobot insignia he installed on his servo.

"Where? What's happening?"

"Hot Rod." The Prime came closer to the younger mech and kneeled before him, placing his servos on his shoulders. His expression was soft, but the optics gave it all away. Optimus was terrified. Hot Rod couldn’t help, but become more concerned.

"I will return soon, I promise. And when I do, I'm going to spend as much time with you as you need."

"Optimus, what'as going on?" The Speedster grabbed the bigger mech's arms. He wasn’t sure if he should start panicking as well or not.

"There is an important situation I must take care of."

"What situation?"

"Ultra Magnus needs me."

"For what? And why do you need your shield and axe?"

"I am not planning to use them."

"Then why are you looking for them? What's happening?"

"Bulkhead will be here soon."

"But-!" Without any warning, Optimus pulled Hot Rod into a very emotional and desperate hug. He wasn't letting go for a long time, occasionaly tightening his grip, sending some mixed signals through his EM field. They were silent until Prime pulled back and looked at Hot Rod again with fearful optics. This was the first time the youngling saw his mentor in such state.

"Optimus..." This lack of knowledge was driving him crazy.

"I'll be back soon." Optimus forced himself to smile. His apprentice wasn’t buying it.

“Please. I need to know how serious is that situation."

"I can't tell how long I'll be away. I can only promise that I will return."

"I thought you said you're going to be a better caretaker this time..."

"I know, Hot Rod." Optimus placed his servo on Hot Rod's helm and pressed his forehead to it. He felt like his optics began filling with small sparks which he tried to surpress. "I know. I know. I'm so, so sorry. As soon as I'll return, I'm going to be the best caretaker you’d ever had a chance to get. You deserve it.”

“Why won’t you tell me what’s happening?”

“Because you shouldn’t be worrying about those things. Not yet. Everything is going to be alright, I’ll make sure of that, but I need you to trust my words. Please...”

The Speedster couldn’t do anything, could he? He just pressed to the touch, closing his optics. He felt like his spoiler was shaking and Energon in his lines boiling.

“I love you.” The Prime said, standing up.

“I love you too.” Hot Rod smiled sadly. “Be careful.”

“I will, Hot Rod. I will.” Optimus headed to the Groundbridge room, picking the right coordinates. Before he entered the portal, he turned around for the last time and gave his student an assuring smile. Hot Rod’s expression switched back to concerned. He wrapped his arms around himself and dropped his spoiler as his mind wandered to where his caretaker could be heading to. Somewhere dangerous for sure. But Optimus didn’t want him to worry, so he tried to prevent the negative thoughts affecting him in the slightest.

“He’s going to be alright...” He told himself, waiting for his watcher to arrive. “He’s Optimus. He’s always alright.”

\-----

After Breakdown patched Starscream’s arm, the Decepticons gathered around the ex prince and listened to his explanation.

“So,” Slipstream started, crossing her arms. “Megatron didn’t...?”

Starscream shook his helm sadly. “He was too weak. Too broken. The enforcers took him down with a single shot. I barely protected myself with his fusion canon.” Everyone was silent. The most taken by the tragic news however was Soundwave. His Minicons were sitting next to him, trying to comfort him the best as they could, but all of them felt nothing but pain.

:And Ravage?: The carrier asked, bringing Lazerbeak and Rumble closer to place them on his lap.

“I’m unfamiliar with his fate, unfortunately. I am so sorry Soundwave.”

Megatron’s ex lieutenant shut his optics tightly. His Cassettes were at the edge of crying. They all curled up and just stayed close together. It was the best they could do.

“T-then we have no leader?” Barricade clenched his fists and grunted his denta. He was the only one who seemed to be angered by the situation. “No goal? No plans? No resources? All of the sacrifice I made was for nothing?!”

“No.” Starscream stood up, courage feeling his optics. “We can’t quit. Not now. Not ever.” He took a few steps forward, walking outside of the medical bay. As if given a command, the others straightened up and decided to follow him, entering the hallway of the ship Shockwave called the Nemesis. An antique, really, but somehow still seemed to be functional.

“Megatron’s death is a tragedy to us, but we can’t let our only opportunity get wasted.” The Seeker turned around, looking at the crew. “He wouldn’t like that, would he?” Everyone shook their helms in denial. Starscream looked through one of the nearest windows, seeing the scenery of Cybertron’s silent blue hills mixed with toxic wastelands. A place which no one would expect them to hide, unless they were seeking the way to sooner join the Allspark.

“Don’t you remember how Megatron got this far? He built his empire out of nothing. He had no one to help him, nothing to begin with, and yet he became one of the most powerful Cybertron’s icons. He was not only a good leader, but also a good friend. His experience was the thing that made him so appealing and at the same dangerous. His words. His courage. The traits he shared with me when I was his student. As long as his spirit burns in my spark, I can continue his legacy. All we can do now is continue. After all, we still have to fulfill his last mission.”

“Uh...” Barricade suddenly interrupted. “I am actually new to this whole cause thing, so... what’s his last mission exacly?” The ex prince smirked discreectly and turned around, facing the mech he once called an enforcer. “To successfully bring peace to Cybertron.”

“But, uh... Aren’t we all in peace by now?”

“Oh, are we Barricade? Are we really?” Starscream walked to Barricade, looking him deep in the optics. The policebot slowly stepped back, helplessly trying to avoid the other’s gaze. “Do you really think that this is what the new world is supposed to look like?”

“I... I think I don’t get your point...”

“Do any of you remember Megatron’s words?” Starscream turned back to the crew, narrowing his optics. “What did he say about the Primes?”

“They’re even more of a scum than all of the criminals on Cybertron combined.” Shockwave said, looking away and clenching his fist. “I had a displeasure of discovering it on my own skin. Figuratively, AND literally.”

“Primes are thieves.” Slipstream grimanced. “They steal the power of the Matrix to themselves and never do scrap to help the citizens. I remember when Megatron publically humiliated Sentinel, offering at least four different solutions for each of our planet’s biggest problems. In just one day, he accomplished more than the Prime in a whole solar cycle.”

“Primes don’t care for their people as much as we’d love to imagine.” Breakdown crossed his arms. “I would’ve layed my life for one before I met Megatron. He showed me the truth. They don’t care about anything unless it involves their selfish afts. ”

Soundwave just looked down with heavy spark.

“Soundwave.” Starscream walked to the carrier and placed his servo on his shoulder. “I know it’s inapproprite to speak for you without your permission, but I think we all can agree that you know the most how cruel and disgusting the Primes are.”

Soundwave looked at all of him Minicons. He couldn’t help, but remember the horrors he witnessed during his gladiatorian days. They were sorrowful, shameful, and bloody. And his Cassettes had to witness it too. The mech looked at Starscream and gave him a small nod. :Primes are not worthy to lead Cybertron...:

“Exacly. We all view them as saviours when in reality they’re simple tyrants. Perhaps they were decent in the past, but they can’t be anymore. Not after Sentinel’s corrupted influence sinked in. And I think we all know who that clown’s successor is.”

“Orion.” The one eyed mech growled.

“Optimus.” Starscream corrected. “He made quite a reputation in the Alchemor, didn’t he?”

“They call him Sentinel’s hatchling. For a good reason. The rumors has it that he taught himself how to fight.” The femmie laughed mockingly. “Imagine making all of the fuss, destroying our’s leader reputation and legacy only to do exacly what he advised him to do in the first place. What a hypocrite!”

“Sentinel was starting similarly. Eon or two and our ol’ pal might become even worse of a ruler.” Breakdown added.

“Sooo...” Barricade chuckled nervously. “What are we supposed to do then?” Starscream tapped his arm and a holographic screen appeared on it.

“First of all, we need some plans and resources. Thankfully, I thought about it years ago. Soundwave.” Starscream turned back to Megatron’s ex lieutenant. The carrier silently looked up, tilting his head in a questionable manner. “I need you to trace this.” The ex prince showed a picture of a metal capsule with a rare vosian stamp on it’s side. “It contains materials that are going to help us in the future. I hid it under Vos before we were captured. If the Cybertronians didn’t find it by now, it should be still around. Slipstrem.” The femmie straightened up. “You’re going to pilot this ship. I trust that I’m giving it to someone more than competent.” She nodded with a smirk.

“Barricade, I have a very special mission for you.”

“You do?” The ex enforcer rose an optical ridge.

“When Soundwave locates that item, I want you to retrive it. And make sure to be quick.”

“I... are you serious?! I went all of the scrap you pulled me in to become your arrand mech?! We had a deal!”

“We did. But I want you to prove that you’re worthy of my trust.”

“Didn’t I already?!”

“The last thing I’m requesting of you is that capsule. Then, we can discuss our further arragement. Shockwave, Breakdown. I need a personal favour from the both of you.”

“Before we begin,” Shockwave suddenly stepped closer, pulling out and presenting a couple of small metal boxes in his servos to the crew. They looked just like the one that contained Megatron’s fusion canon. The scientist gave each Decepticon one and took one himself. The group pushed the buttons on their tops and the packages activated themselves. Every one of them transformed into different kind of weapon:

Barricade got a machine gun and a pair of knuckledusters, Soundwave received two arm disks and a sonic blaster, Breakdown claimed two battle hammers, Slipstream was gifted with null rays and Starscream- his old missile launchers and a laser sword. 

“Um... Thanks...?” The ex enforcer didn’t expect that he’d get an actual weapon one day. He was also 70% sure that it was far from legal to possess.

“Primus, I missed those!” Breakdown grinned, smashing his hammers together.

“Look! Our old panel!” Rumble cheered as Soundwave installed the disk on his arms.

“I surely missed recharging in it.” Batrat smiled shyly. The carrier mech’s spark pulsed with sorrow when he saw one empty slot that used to be Ravage’s. Hesitantly, he blocked it to spare his Minicons’ further pain.

“Everything is settled then.” Starscream smirked and rose his first to the air. “The Decepticons are back! Megatron shall be avenged!”

“All hail Starscream!” Breakdown rose his own arm, adding.

“All hail Starscream!” Shockwave and Slipstream joined.

“All... hail Starscream!” Barricade hesitantly followed.

:All hail Starscream...: Soundwave was the last. His chant was almost a whisper.

And so the new era has begun.

The era of Starscream.

\-----

“Uugh…” Ravage rose himself from the ground, trying to sit down. He shook his head, waiting for his optics to turn back to normal, checking if his systems were fully functional. The Casette’s blurry vision cleared and soon, he spotted a gigantic dark grey frame laying next to him. He stepped back, seeing Megatron staring at his servos with an unreadable expression. He seemed offline, but it was clear that he was awake. Just… absent.

“Megatron.” Ravage called, lowering his audials. Instead of responding, Megatron buried his faceplates behind his servos, hiding himself from the Minicon. He figured that his ex leader might have been in some kind of shock after the dramatic experience he had. Or perhaps he knew what happened and was absolutely heartbroken. If he was, the Cassette really couldn’t blame him. He had some suspicions towards Starscream, but he solemly believed that it was just his paranoia. He never expected his leader’s own student to betray him at his weakest state. 

Ravage went closer to the bigger mech and poked his helm, trying to get his attention. “Megatron…” He spoke in a soft purr. Whatever the other was struggling with at the moment, he was going to help him no matter what. “I’m sorry. What happened back there was-”

Suddenly, Megatron twitched and a few seconds later a few muffled noises escaped his servos. Ravage’s optics widened, highly alarmed. Was Megatron in pain? Was his condition worse than he expected? However, his worries didn’t last long as the Casette finally recognized the noises the Decepticon was making.

His leader wasn’t in pain...

He was... giggling!

Ravage couldn’t help, but make a step forward.

“Mega-?” Suddenly, the rebel took his servos out of his faceplates and burst into uncontrollable laughter. But it wasn’t a laugh of panic, or madness. Megatron seemed geniuenly happy! The Minicon was absolutely baffled.

“Megatron?”

“Ravage!” The Decepticon wheezed. Without any warning, he reached his servos towards Ravage and grabbed him, pulling him in the air so he could see him face to face. The Minicon made a small startled hiss before scanning the other’s expression. It was something completely different than what he saw the last time. Megatron’s sad optics were now bursting with excitement and his small, appreciative smile couldn’t get any wider. The mech he met a few cycles ago seemed like a completely different person compared to what he was witnessing now.

“HOLY VECTOR, THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY INSANE!” After some time, Megatron pulled himself on his pedes, placing Ravage on the nearest rock he could find. Before the Cassette could speak, the rebel started babbling while energetically gesturing with his whole body.

“It all seemed like a vision! A big, crazy vision that never seemed to end! First that explosion, then the wall, the the elevator, then the light, then-”

“Megatron, slow down. I don’t understand-”

“THEN I JUMPED THROUGH A WINDOW, RAVAGE! FROM AN ELEVATOR!” Megatron litreally screamed, spreading his arms. Ravage widened his optics.

“YOU WHAT-?!”

“And then all of those guards, and the light, and the fight, and -I’m pretty sure I lost a nut or two on the way- AND THEN YOU!”

“Yes, I remember. What was that about the window-?”

“AND THOSE POOLS! AND NOW...!” The rebel couldn’t help, but laugh again. He turned around and took some fresh air to his vents, quickly ex venting moments after. His smile revealed his sharp denta.

“Ah, I MISSED that spicy atmoshpere of the surface!”

“Yes, that’s absolutely great and all, but we should- What are you doing?!”

The Deceptcion leader started spinning around, observing the scenery of the canyon.

“Did this canyon grew out of nowhere during all those years? I have never seen it and I’ve been to pretty much all of the places on Cybertron! Look at it, it’s absolutely astounding! There’s so much space and so many colours! The sky is so beautiful! There’s no grey! No guards! No laser bars! It’s perfect!!!”

Suddenly, the bigger mech lost his balance and fell on his back with a startled yelp. After a second, he started snorting and once again errupted with laughter. It took for Ravage some time, but he finally noticed the injuries on his leader’s body.

“Megatron!” He ran closer, highly concerned. “Your side!”

“Hm?” The rebel followed the Cassette’s look, wandering to his burned side. He only smiled assuringly and waved his servo. “Ah, that? Don’t worry, that thing stopped hurting a while ago!”

“Yes, but you may need a medic!”

“Pffff! Let me know if you’ll find one. Hey, what’s that?!” Megatron literally jumped on his pedes and ran to the nearest cave, spotting a few energon crystals growing out of it’s walls. It created a lovely picture of blue lights on silver scenery of the cave which made him remember his old miner days.

“Megatron.” Ravage followed him.

“H, what’s THAT?!″ The rebel ran again, ignoring the Minicon. He went to the wall of rocks and looked through it. Megatron saw the great Sea of Mercury itself in the distance. Two Luna moons were reflecting on it’s smooth silver surface and the night scenery was adding the right atmosphere to it. More memories began flowing back to the leader’s head. His whole life was flashing in front of his optics at this point and he loved every second of it.

“Megatron!” The Cassette jumped on the rocks next to Megatron. Before he had a chance to say anything, the bigger mech ran again. He growled in frustration and jumped back.

They spent some time playing the chase of goose until Ravage got tired of following his leader and simply layed down, letting Megatron have his fun.

And Megatron was having alot of it.

He was running around and spotting different objects until his optics catched a glimpse of something new. Something that made him stop and take a moment. Something far greater than anything he found in the canyon. The rebel turned around and froze in place, optics widening. Ravage noticed that.

“Are you alright?”

Megatron silently stepped closer towards the picture that caught his attention. He saw a gigantic city in a far, yet seemingly close distance. It was painted in blue, purple and pink lights, which added a big sense of nostalgia for the Decepticon. It was the city he was very familiar of.

“Kaon...” Megatron whispered. His home city. The rebel never expected to see it again. The Casette stepped closer, sitting behind the mech and looking up.

“Yes. It’s Kaon.”

“It’s... more beautiful than I ever imagined...”

“It is. And it’s this way thanks to you.”

“Yeah... H-heh... I guess it is.”

He stared at Kaon a few more minutes and Ravage waited. He had to understand that Megatron needed some time. He was happy to be free and his behaviour was fully justified. The Cassette wished he could give him some more time to enjoy it, but he still had to tell him some bad news.

After a few minutes, the mech turned around and kneeled in front of Ravage. His optics softened and his smile became smaller, more geniuent.

“Ravage?” 

“Yes?” Again, without any warning, Megatron pulled the Casette closer. He wrapped his arms around him and pressed his cheek to the Minicon’s head. Ravage widened his optics, feeling like his spark could burst at any moment due to his leader’s owerhelming emotion.

“Thank you.” The rebel said, slightly tightened his grip, sending Ravage a few messages through his EM field. “Thank you so much for helping me. I would have never got out without you. You did an excellent job.” The Minicon couldn’t help, but slowly melt to the touch. He had no idea how he was supposed to explain to his leader about the Decepticons. He had to think of the least painful way to tell the mech that their plans have changed drastically.

“I’m just... doing my job.” Ravage replied, slightly narrowing his optics. The job that costed him everything. Soundwave. His Minicon bondmates. A place in the cause. But even when he lost everything, at least Megatron stayed with him. At least he got a chance to grand him the happiness he lacked for so long. He got to see him being himself. And seeing that big bright smile on his faceplates seemed to make up for everything he went through.

“... Alright.” Soon, Megatron pulled back, giving the Cassette a small pat on the head and standing up. He started walking forward, looking at Ravage with an encouraging grin. “Let’s go back to the rest.”

“Wait...” The Minicon felt like his spark just died a bit “what?!”

“To the rest.” The Decepticon only shrugged and made a chuckle. “I owe Starscream a hug too, you know.”

“W-wait, Megatron!” Ravage ran in front of Megatron, stopping him. The rebel rose his optical ridges. “We can’t go back!”

“Why?”

“B-because... Because...”

“Come on, Ravage. We went through so much, and I know, we’re all happy to see each other. But I want to meet the others as well! I bet Soundwave will be over Luna 2 when the two of us arrive!”

“No!”

“Of course he will! Soundwave and Breakdown, and Slipstream, and Starscrea-”

“STARSCREAM TRIED TO KILL YOU!” The Cassette finally confessed. To his horror, Megatron froze.

“He... what?” Ravage hanged his head, pain filling his spark.

“Starscream didn’t want to free you... He tried to get rid of you...”

“Ravage...” The bigger’s mech expression became more more serious. “Telling such lies about your associates is highly-”

“I SAW THE WHOLE THING! If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead! They don’t want us anymore! We’re alone!”

Megatron shook his head, expression quickly shifting from consufion to denial.

“That can’t be true.”

“Think about it! You were shot and no one tried to help you! Starscream wasn’t there when you were getting out!”

“He sent a Groundbridge to help me!”

“I can sense their Groundbridge activity, you know I can! I was in the building and felt nothing! The Groundbridge wasn’t theirs! And they didn’t do anything after! They abandoned us both!”

“Starscream would never betray me!”

“FOR PRIMUS’ SAKE, MEGATRON! OPEN YOUR OPTICS! YOUR BELOVED PUPIL SHOT TO YOU FROM YOUR OWN WEAPON AND LEFT YOU TO DIE! YOU’RE NOT WELCOMED WITHIN THE DECEPTICONS ANYMORE!”

Megatron wasn’t responding for a long time which made Ravage regret his words.

“M-Megatron, I-I didn’t...” The mech turned around, trying to relive his escape again. He proccessed every detail he could remember. After a second, his optics filled something that appeared to be a quick realization which was soon followed by a crushing feeling of sorrow. The Decepticon ran his servo down his faceplates, tightening his pointed digits around his features.

So much for the least painful explanation part...

“I’m really sorry, Megatron.” Ravage couldn’t help, but curl between his leader’s legs, trying to comfort him. “I didn’t know Starscream would do such thing either. I just want you to know that I’m on your side. I betrayed him. And I really want to help you. And I want you to know that... even if everyone is going to be against you, I’ll be there for you... I’m going to protect you.”

“... Can you pitpoint Soundwave’s signal?” Megatron suddenly asked.

“Y… yes. It’s a bit blurry, but I can still sense him.”

“Lead the way.”

“But we can’t-”

“Lead. The. Way.” The rebel took his servo off his face, looked down and revealed a dangerous frown. Ravage could tell that he wasn’t in the laughing mood anymore.

“I… very well.”

This is not what he expected. What they both expected. But Megatron was going to meet Starscream, no matter what outcome their approach would have.

Starscream had to explain himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Story: Ok. We need some proper Megatron characterization. Any ideas?  
Me, raising a hand: What if he was cute?  
Story:...
> 
> This is basically what I was thinking this entire time xD
> 
> So yeah, another week, another chapter. It was pretty fun to write. I really like what I did with the Decepticons. Each one of them has a different view of why the Prime has to be taken down and Starscream just knows exacly what to say to convince them to follow him. My gremlin child is growing healthy x3
> 
> Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter! See you soon and have a good day!
> 
> (Also side note, I gave Soundwave a YuGiOh dueling disk ;3c)


	9. ... comes even bigger storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus meets with Ultra Magnus to discuss the case of fallen prison Alchemor while the Decepticons make their fist moves.

From up close, it looked even more terrifying.

Optimus arrived at the Alchemor, seeing the damage prisoners left. Everything was a mess to say the least. Besides the destroyed wall, the inside was burnt, windows were shattered, and the halls were trashed at best. The older mech looked around and saw enforcers being investigated by a Minicon with an Elite badge on his arm. Some of them seemed injured, but the building definetly seemed in much worse condition. Thank, and thank not Primus…

Optimus noticed that the place was full with Rescue bots, helping the Elites control the situation. They were scattered around the place, searching, cleaning and making sure that the enforcers were treated properly. Suddenly, one of the bigger Autobots noticed the Prime’s presence and immediately started walking towards him. The red and blue mech straightened up, not giving away his concern.

“Sir.” It was Ultra Magnus. The High Protector walked to Optimus, offering him a servo.

“Commander.” Optimus replied, accepting it. He wanted to start a conversation like he usually did, ask him how he’s been and all, but the formalities had to come first. “How many of the prisoners escaped?”

“Tragically, most of them.” Ultra Magnus replied, unnaturally calm. The situation was obvious, but Optimus still held onto the rest of his blind hope that it wasn’t as bad as everyone pictured it to be. Unfortunately, his deepest fears proved to be reality. “The building itself was damaged from the inside. The rest of the prisoners and confiscated equipment were placed in the stasis pods and transported to the Polyhex’s prison. Now, we’re trying to re-create the incident and locate the the rest of the criminals.” Optimus couldn’t help, but cross his arms.

“What about their tracking devices?”

“Deactivated.” A voice spoke behind them. To the two mechs walked a small group of the other Elites: A gigantic flier, a mech with a blue glass on his right optic, and a small yellow bot with something that seemed to be a watch in his servo. “Just like everything in this building.”

“Bumblebee.” Optimus turned to them. The mech named Bumblebee smiled and waved to the Prime. “Hi, OP! Long time no see!”

“Scout Bumblebee.” Ultra Magnus frowned, glaring at the yellow bot. “Show some proper respect to you superior.”

“It’s alright, Ultra Magnus.” Optimus rose his servo, calming the commander down. “We’re all friends in here.”

“Speaking of friends,” The gigantic flier interrupted, looking around. “Has anyone seen Prowl yet? I was really worried about his brother lately.”

“Oh, Jetfire, buddy…” The scout let out a sharp hiss, looking away and grunting his denta.

“What?” The mech named Jetfire rose an optical ridge. “He seemed sick. I want to ask if he’s been to a doctor.”

“Is something wrong?” The Prime joined.

“Prowl… decided to chase the escapees himself.“ Ultra Magnus crossed his arms, stuttering again.

“And you let him act on his own?” Optimus titled his head, starting to wonder if the High Protector was feeling alright.

"I’ve been told that he left before we arrived. If that makes you feel better, I’m planning to schold him later.”

“Why would he decide to do something like that the first place?”

“A grudge.” Bumblebee shrugged. “The whole thing turned out to be a very personal mess.”

“What do you mean by that?”

"One of the prisoners who planned the jailbreak turned out to be his younger brother.” The commander said, searching through the profiles of police officers. He stopped at the one with a picture of a policebot with purple optics and moody expression. “Barricade of Prax.”

“What?!” Jetfire shouted, walking closer. Ultra Magnus turned to him and gave him a stare. He quickly stepped back. “S-sir, with all due respect. I saw Barricade just yesterday, he was weaker than a Turbofox during hybernation process!”

“I’m just stateing what officer Powerglide told detective Dropforge. Unfortunately, the cameras were damaged so for now we have to trust his words.”

“What do we have then?” Optimus interrupted again.

“We have some locations and names, but at least one fifth of prisoners’ records were permamently removed.” Ultra Magnus continued. “Prowl might know places where his brother could stop at, but there also appears to be one difficult mystery to solve. Perceptor!” The High Protector called one of the detectives. The mech named Perceptor stepped out of the group and tapped the glass on his optic. It projected a big holoscreen which showed results of the investigation. Perpector opened the profile sheet and picked the one which Optimus recognized immediately. His spark felt like it shrinked a bit.

“Megatron…”

“Indeed.” Perceptor walked in front of the screen and started tapping it, leaving red dots behind. “Those are the places he was seen the last time. The officers stated that he was alone. What’s also curious is that his profile is still in our database while every other Decepticon’s was hacked. Multiple sectors seen his brief presence, but no one can exacly tell where he managed to escape.” Optimus looked at Bumblebee which suddenly dropped his head and looked away. He coulodn’t help, but feel concerned.

"How did he do that?” Jetfire suddenly asked. Perceptor turned to him with confused expression.

“Did what?”

“How did he went from one end of the prison to another?”

“… You don’t know?”

“Hardly, I am afraid. Everyone so far seemed to keep certain informations from me for some odd reason. I would love an explanation.” Perceptor looked at Ultra Magnus who looked at Prime. Optimus himself turned his head towards his yellow friend. As soon as the scout noticed the Prime’s gaze, he looked up and smiled to him. The red and blue mech hesitantly looked at the High Protector and gave a small nod. Ultra Magnus turned to Perceptor and gave him his permission.

“Very well then.” Perceptor said, opening old data files. “I think you are familiar with the project Shockwave’s been working on with Megatron, Skyfire.”

“The first ever functioning SpaceBridge.” Skyfire put his servos on his waist, his expression growing more focused. “Shockwave personally stole my researches eons ago.”

“Then you should know that something went horribly wrong with it…”

—–

“’Help me free my associates’, he said.” Barricade jumped out of the Groundbridge, holding a tracking device. “’I can help you with your disease’, he said.” He was mumbling to himself as he walked through a long tunel under Vos that seemed to be abandoned. “I had a great life before. Sure, people were telling me to bring them things too, but back then I actually liked them! And now I have to work with a spawn of scraplets that made me this way! Is this a punishment for something? Is that last goodie I stole from Prowl actually getting revenge on me? Because it would be some hilariously dark irony if it did.” Suddenly, his tracker started buzzing and a small signature appeared on it’s screen. The ex enforcer followed it. “Maybe I should fly to Velocitron after all of this is over. Yeah, that sounds like a plan! Always loved their Cube league. Who knows, maybe I can even become their mascot! Everything sounds amazing compared to the lack of life I’d have on Cybertro- OUCH!” A wall before him made him lose his train on thoughts. Barricade hissed and grabbed his head, looking up. He found a dead end..

“Oh great…” He growled, looking at his device. “Is this scrap broken or something? Wait…” The ex enforcer suddenly remembered a detective movie he watched with Chase not that long ago. It was almost the same setting, except that Barricade was a criminal in it… Maybe the item he was looking for was behind the wall?

That would’ve been pretty genious, actually…

The officer pulled out his machine gun and started staring at it. It was much bigger than his previous weapon and definetly had more settings, but it seemed to operate quite easily. All he had to do is aim and pull the trigger. And yet, Barricade still had many doubts about what he was doing. However, he kept reminding himself that the mess he was in was because of his own violition. He went too far and there were now only two paths for him in the future: Prison, or life as an outcast. Personally, he wanted to keep his freedom. Everything was going be worth it in the end… It had to be.

After a few seconds, he stepped back, aiming the gun at the wall and firing a shot. A single string of dark laser made the wall crumble and fall. Barricade went closer and looked inside of the hole. To his surprise, he found nothing there.

“THAT FRAGGER!” He errupted, shaking. “HE DID IT ON PURPOSE, DIDN’T HE?!” Without any control over himself, the policebot threw a punch at the hole he made. Suddenly, he felt like it’s surface was pressing to his touch. The enforcer quickly drew his fist back with confused expression and a few moments later, he felt like the ground under him started moving. He stepped back, just in time to see a revealed hiding spot. Something was inside. Barricade kneeled, turning on his lights. He found the capsule with an antique looking stamp inside.

“… huh. Okay.” The policebot whispered and opened the comn link. “I’ve got the thing.”

—–

“Splendid!” Starscream cheered with one arm behind is back. “Your tracking device should lead you to the location of our Groundbridge. Again, make sure to be quick.” The Seeker switched off his signal and turned to Slipstream behind the controlling pannel. “Is everything ready?”

“It’s an old ship, chief. Those systems are very old school.” The femmie said, chuckling. “Good thing I’m an old school lady myself.” She said as she activated the ship’s engines. Soon, the ground beneath them started shaking and the Nemesis slowly pushed itself off the ground. It’s engines roared and it started rising higher and higer until it was fully in the air. Slisptream found a stere and rolled it, making Nemesis turn. She then switched the ship’s cloak on and soon, it disappeared without anyone noticing.

“Aaaaand we’re off!~” The pilot turned to Strascream with satisfied grin. The new leader nodded. “Good job. Make sure to keep it that way.”

“Will do, captain!” Slipstream saluted as Starscream walked out of the room. Stepping through the hallway, the ex prince saw Breakdown cleaning his new med bay and Soundwave working on a computer while his Minicons were helping with something. So far, everything was working out fantastic.

Starscream stepped to the back of the ship where he met Shockwave.

“You made quite a laboratory, old friend.” He commented as he let himself in. The place was full of machines and inventions both small and big which seemed to be serving different purpose each. It was clear that the scientist spent alot of time aboard the Nemesis. Shockwave was at the table, working on some machine. He replaced his arm gun with a scalpel, which helped him reach to the delicate processors without damaging it’s whole system. He didn’t even turn around to greet his leader.

Starscream got a bit irritated by the other’s behaviour. He looked up and saw a Groundbridge Ring on the ceiling. It wasn’t an usual Groundbridge Ring however. It was bigger and it’s stucture seemed more detailed than the standard ones. The Seeker seemed to recognize it.

“A SpaceBridge?”

“Yes.” Finally, the scientist replied. “After so many eons I gained the experience I needed to complete it.” Starscream seemed satisfied that he managed to start a conversation. He walked closer, scanning the table other Decepticon was working at.

“Ah, yes. I heard that Megatron was helping you with it.”

“Indeed.”

“…He must have been a great partner to work with.” Starscream turned around, facing the Ring from behind. “He had quite a passion for science.” 

“He certainly had.” Shockwave pulled out his scalpel and placed it on the table, replacing it with a claw. “Megatron’s assistence was appreciated, but there were some things about him that seemed highly questionable…”

“Well, he was certainly something else.”

“Perhaps. After some time I started noticing that he had some repeatable behaviours.”

“Really?” The ex prince purred, smirking discreetly.

“During our work, he kept asking me questions. Many questions. They all seemed the same. Either proffesional, or even personal. I used to think that he was unpredictable, but once I figured the pattern, the whole picture of him shifted. He was very easy to predict. This is what got him captured in the first place.”

Starscream’s optics flickered dangerously. His smirk widened as he turned around. “As much as I miss him, I have to admit that he was getting rather old.”

“Not to mention desperate. His goal-driven ambition may have been an inspiration to crowds, but in personal encounters he seemed nothing but pathetic.”

“I always knew his sentiment would be his doom one day. I spoke with him about that on many occasions.” The Seeker faced the scientist and put his servo on his arm. “But I can guarantee you that I am nowhere near our ex leader’s level of predicament. I will make a gigantic diference, and I want you to be with me when I do. All of you. I‘m sure I proved my value by now.” Shockwave was silent for some time. After a few seconds, he noded and pulled something out of the machine he’s been working on.

“I am more than willing to find out if what you’re guaranteeing is true, Starscream.” He turned to the Seeker and showed him a small tracking device with a red biolight on it’s top.

“I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t intrigued by your vision. Know that my efforts will lay on your side and your side only, but I’m going to need a personal favor myself.” Starscream grinned.

“Noted. Now, let’s proceed with our plan, shall we?”

—–

“Sir!” Perceptor tapped his glass again, revealed a holograhip map. A tiny purple dot was flashing on it’s surface. “The Decepticon signal has been tracked! It’s Megatron!”

“Locate it!” The High Protector ordered, turning to Optimus. “All units are to your command, Prime.”

“I am more than capable of protecting myself, commander.” Optimus stated, activating his battle mask. “I want your enforcers to make sure that no civilians are going to be involved in this confrontation.”

“Are you quite sure, sir?”

Optimus nodded.

“Very well then.”

—–

“I should’ve expected that Assasin of Primes would return to his home city.” Perceptor whispered, keeping his blaster raised. Bumblebee, Jetfire and Ultra Magnus were covering the group while Optimus was leading. They arrived on a hill where they catched Megatron’s signal.

“Everyone, keep your guard up.” The Prime said, swinging his axe in his servo and clenching his grip on the shield. “Everything considered questioable is to be immediately reported to me.” The group nodded.

“You know, before we left, Wheeljack gave me his new invention.” Bumblebee said, getting out of topic. “Invisible device of some sort. It’s said to have multiple functions. I am still a bit afraid to use it, I mean it’s from Wheeljack, but-”

“Scout Bumblebee.” The commander warned. “Focus.”

“Right…” The goup decided to split up. Ultra Magnus and Prime investigated the top of the hill while the rest started circling it around. Bumblebee found himself on the other side of it. He searched back and forth, trying to focus on anything that seemed off, when suddenly…

;Bumblebee.; Bumblebee heard a voice coming from his comn link. He tapped his audial, recognizing his caller.

“Yes, Prime?”

;I just wanted to thank you for participating in this mission.; Optimus replied softly. ;I know how diffcult it must be for you.;

The scout couldn’t help, but sighn.

“I don’t think anyone is feeling at ease right now. I mean, it’s the Decepticons we’re talking about.”

;Yes, but… I can’t help, but feel like you’re not fully ready to face Megatron.;

“No, it’s…” Bumblebee looked down, optics growing a bit heavy. “Wow, I… I didn’t expect having this conversation today…”

;I discussed it with Ultra Magnus. If you’re not feeling confident enough, Skyfire will take you back to the capital and-;

“Whoah, whoah, whoah! Let’s not go in that direction, okay?” Bumblebee chuckled nervously. “I’m not THAT unwilling to participate! I’m just… a bit nervous, that’s all.”

“I have no rights to ask you to sacrifice the sake of your recovery for this mission.”

“Optimus. I’m in a military. We’re trained to handle those situations. Besides, what happened with Megatron was millions and millions of years ago. My throat doesn’t even hurt anymore.“

;… Are you certain, old friend?;

“I’m a grown bot, Prime. I can take care of myself. I want this encounter. But… thanks. I appreciate your concern.” The scout smiled. He heard Optimus humming.

;Thank you for your loyalty, solider.;

“Anytime, Big O. Anytime.; He was about to hang up when suddenly he spotted something in the distance. There was a tiny stack of metal on the side of the hill laying behind a few boulders. Strange noises were escaping from it.

“Optimus, wait a second.” Bumblebee went closer and kneeled, sweeping metal surface of the stack. “I think I’ve got something…”

;What is it?;

“I found a tiny red box hidden under a pile of scrap. A device of some sort. It looks like a track… Oh no.”

Bumblebee stood up and shouted through the comn link. “OPTIMUS, GET OUT OF THERE IMMEDIAT-”

The scout was cut out by a loud commotion coming from his audial. Alarmed, he rushed back to the rest and saw his team laying on the ground. He quickly hid, seeing figures approaching. Before he had a chance to pull out his Stinger, a sudden black servo grabbed his arm and pulled him in the air, revealing his position. It was Breakdown,

“Hi, there.” He smirked.

“LET ME GO!” Bumblebee shouted as he tried to get away.

“Well, well, well.” From the crowd walked out Stasrcream, looking down at the Autobots with arms folded behind his back. “He certainly grew more… ‘noble’ over the time.“

“Starscream!” Bumblebee shouted with a hiss. The Seeker only looked at him and rose an optical ridge.

“Do I know you?”

“You’re not going to get away with this!”

Starscream made a soft snort, grinning. “You’re adorable. Breakdown, he’s yours.”

Before the one eyed mech could respond, the yellow Autobot kicked him in the stomach and managed to slip out of his grasp. Bumblebee managed to roll over him and pull out his Stinger, hitting the mech on his back with it. After a moment, the Decepticon medic fell on the ground, completely immobilized. The rest of the Decepticons pulled out their weapons, making Bumblebee step back.

He needed to think quick!

The scout decided to use the device Wheeljack gave to him. He quickly pulled out a small watch like machine, placed it on his wrist and activated it. The scout disappeared in seconds.

“I’ll track him.” Soundwave stated.

“No need.” Starscream rose his arm and returned to the paralyzed Autobot group. He pointed his digit at Optimus, and then at Skyfire. “We’re taking the ones that matter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love to imagine Ultra Magnus with voice of Ange Braugher (captain Reymond Holt from Brooklyn 99). That would make the whole Elite cast a comedic sitcom which is find completely hilarious and accurate.
> 
> First introduction of Bee! Bee boi. Brave boi. Bumble boi. And some other nicknames I don't really want to think of because I embarrased myself enough.
> 
> Aaaaaanyway, that's it for now! Hope ya'll enjoyed! T.B.C. (^w^)


	10. The Nemesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus and the crew find themselves on the Nemesis. Starscream is beggining his game, there's nothing and no one stopping him. What kind of danger should be expected from the new leader of the Decepticons?

Barricade tried to drag the gigantic capsule through the tunnel of Vos. It was quite big and heavy, but it semed full, so Starscream was saying the truth. When the enforcer reached the end of the tunnel and stepped outisde, he felled on the ground immediately.

“Frag...” He hissed, one servo supporting himself with the ground and other with an edge of the capsule. “Energy running out fast...” He looked up at the container and stared at it for the moment.

“... Maybe... There’s something useful inside.”

Without any more thoughts put into it, Barricade pushed the capsule to some discreet place and opened it. Inside were laying a large stack of datapads and some strange looking devices. He picked up one of the weapons he found inside, activating it. It started charging. The weapon was old, but still seemed willing to function.

“Oh, thank you, thank you Starscream.” The ex enforcer said before biting into it.

Suddenly, Barricade heard heavy footsteps coming towards him. He froze, dropping the weapon. The ex enforcer stepped out of his hiding place and started searching for the source of the sound. He scanned the place a couple of times for any kind of heat signature. Thankfully, he saw no one. The policebot was about to return to the capsule when suddenly:

"What are you doing in here?" A chilling voice spoke from the nearest opening. The ex enforcer jumped, turning around. It was Prowl with a very concerning expression.

"P-Prowl!" Barricade almost squeaked. Prowl walked closer to his brother, making him step back.

"What are you doing in here?”

“I, uh-”

“ Everyone's looking for you!"

"T-they do? Oh my, why...?" The ex enforcer smiled nervously. Prowl placed his servo on his forehead, shaking his head.

"Please, tell me those rumours are not true."

"W-what rumours?"

"Barricade." The older policebot grabbed Barricade by his arms and looked at him seriously. "Look me in the optics and tell me that you didn't help the prisoners escape."

"WHAT?!" Barricade pretended to be shocked. He was such a bad liar, but he had to keep his act together. "Who told you that?!"

"The others. You supposedly attacked Powerglide and ran away with the rest of the Decepticons."

"Wait... okay, hold on a click! What happened?"

"You don't know?" Prowl rose an optical ridge judgingly.

"N-no...? Why?"

"The prisoner escaped from the Alchemor." Prowl let go of his brother, crossing his arms. "At the time I left the building. Haven't you been there?"

"Oh, uh, I was! But, then I decided to go-”

“Go?” His older brother’s voice deepened with every question.

“To... to the doctor!” The ex enforcer finally found some courage to look up and smile reasuringly. “To check my condition. You know, like you asked me to!"

"... at your duty."

"The sooner the better."

“And... you’re alright?”

“Yeah, just tired. Doc said that I should take some medicine and a good break. Too much stress lately. I’m really sorry for making you worried.”

Barricade hoped that his brother would believe him the second time. The older enforcer was silent for a few moments, mind wandering somewhere.

"... To which doctor have you been to?" He finally asked. The ex enforcer widened his optics.

"A... are you accusing me of something???"

"No. I’m just an aft who’s worried about his younger brother and his wellbeing. I’m not going to ask any more question, I just want you to answer this one."

"... I've... I've been to First Aid..."

"... First Aid?"

"Yeah."

"At the time I left?"

"Yeah! He was pretty slow, so it took me a while to get out of his office. Then I had to drive all the way to Vos to buy my medicine, and... ”

Suddenly, Prowl's expression shifted. His stern optics widened and his jaw dropped. Barricade got worried.

"I-is something wrong, brother?"

"No... Just one thing." Prowl looked away for a second, clenching his fist. Barricade could tell that he was preventing himself from shaking. Uh oh... "I met First Aid on the station when I was leaving. He’s been on vacations for almsot two solar cycles."

Barricade froze.

"You did this, didn't you?"

Out of pure instinct, the younger bot reached for his teaser and aimed for his brother's stomach. As soon as his arm found itself close to Prowl, the policebot swiftly grabbed it. He looked up and met his brother's optics. His usual calm expression turned into a mix of anger and pain. The ex enforcer pushed the policebot, causing him to fall on the ground. Barricade ran to the capsule and picked as many items as he could, storaging them in his cabin. He transformed as quickly as he could and stormed off without looking away.

Prowl rose himself from the ground, grunting his denta and dangerously narrowing his optics. He transformed into a vehicle as well and started chasing his brother with police siren turned on.

\-----

"Get up, solider!" After Perceptor gained his conciousness, he felt like something was shaking him. The detective onlined his optics and saw Ultra Magnus trying to get him on his pedes. Perceptor grabbed his head, pulling himself off the ground with the High Protector's help.

"Did you took any major damage?" He asked, scanning the smaller mech’s frame.

"No... I don't think so, sir..." The decetive managed to reply. He looked around, noticing the absence of their teammates. He and Ultra Magnus were the only ones there.

"Sir..." He widened his optics. "Where are our other companions?"

Ultra Magnus' expression shifted to anger as he slightly looked away. It was enough for the detective to figure out what the answer was. Perceptor couldn’t help but hang his head.

"We... we failed, didn’t we?"

"I don't want to hear any of that from one of my soliders." Ultra Magnus ordered. "We're going to find them. That’s our top prority. ”

\-----

Optimus felt numb. Every inch of his body was in different kind of pain. He could tell that some areas were affected by the electrocution, but others weren’t as clear. The Prime started hearing whispering around him. After his vision cleared, he saw the Decepticon- Starscream and Shockwave, before him. Both of them noticed that the older mech was awake. Optimus tried to move his servo, but something was blocking his movement. The mech looked down and saw that he was chained to the medical table.

"Orion!" Starscream smirked. The bigger mech only frowned.

"It’s Optimus, Starscream."

"Why so cold? Aren't you happy to meet an old friend?"

"Where am I? What buisness do you have with me?"

Shockwave walked to the table on the edge of the room. The Seeker just huffed and twitched his wings. "Since you're so eager to know, me and my associates couldn't help but notice the changes you’ve made on our Cybertron. All I have to say is, bravo.” The Seeker clapped ironically. “You achieved your long devoted goal. Too bad you accomplished it by completely destroying our leader.”

"Whatever Megatron is planning, know that my Autobots will-" 

“Ooooh, no. You mistunderstood.” Starscream shook his head and dropped his wings. “Megatron is no more.”

Optimus widened his optics.

“What?”

“Such unfortunate event.” The Seeker started gesturing with his servos. “Murdered by the servos of your precious people. Awaiting a long desired rescue that never came.” He paused and leaned closer to Optimus’ face with a bitter expression. “He was willing to give the world to you and you repayed him by locking him in the deepest part of the Alchemor never to be seen again.”

Prime couldn’t find any words to respond with. He just avoided the other’s look, trying to keep himself calm.

“Nothing to add? Well.” Starscream stepped back, straightening up. “Aren’t you just a shining example of a real Prime.”

“... I’m not only here so you can mock me, am I?”

“The most brilliant observation. Shockwave?”

Starscream turned to Shockwave who switched his weapon to a drill and came closer.

“I hope you’re not too attached to that cursed object in your chest yet.”

Optimus looked at the tool in horror. He tried to break free, but his chains were too strong for him. The Decepticon leader chuckled.

“Oh, no. You’re not going anywhere! Not until you’ll give us what we want.”

“Never.” The Prime said coldly. Starscream narrowed his optics.

“I think you mistunderstood our intentions. We’re not trying to hurt you, we’re trying to free you.”

“From the Matrix?”

“From the overhealming duty of leadership!” Starscream spread his arms in a theatrical manner. “How many Primes before you failed to achieve their goal of improving our society? How can we trust someone who was under a careful watch of Sentinel Prime? Whose teaching poisoned your people’s minds? How can you prove that you’re not going to become a monster like him due to the power of the Matrix?”

“Unlike my ex teacher, I care about my people!”

“Caring is such an easy thing to do, Optimus. However, the final effort is truly what it’s all about. An effort from someone capable of leading. Someone who knows how to live up to his role. Who was taught and trained to become a ruler from his very start.” It didn’t took Optimus long to realize what the other was talking about.

“No one is going to follow you, Starscream. No one.”

“Oh, but they will. I can guarantee you that.”

“The Council won’t let you-”

“The Council won’t have anything to say as long as I have all of the bargain chips! Nor them! Nor the Elite!” The Seeker smirked. Optimus narrowed his optics.

“Think about it. I have you, the Matrix, and an armed battleship I can use whenever I desire. If your associates decide to attack, well. We’d be forced to fight back. And you know what kind of damage the Decepticons can cause when they have a goal.” The Seeker sent chills down Optimus’ spine. Terrible, terrible chills that left a nasty trail of fear in the Prime’s mind.

“But enough of friendly chatter! We have a work to do.”

Starscream snapped his digits, and at once, Shockwave looked at him.

"You know what to do."

The sciencist nodded and went closer to Optimus. He activated something in the Prime’s system and at once, his chest opened. The Decepticons were shined out by the bright blue light Matrix was emitting. Starscream went closer, smirking.

"Get it out.”

Optimus tried again to break free, but his chains were preventing him from it. Shockwave’s drill activated and Prime froze.

“I warn you.” The Prime said in a shaky voice. “Stay back!”

But the scientist didn’t listen. And as soon as the drill reahced the surface of the relic, a powerful shock struck Shockwave, making him step back and shout. The Seeker slightly widened his optics, running to his associate. With a powerful impact, a small device flew out of the Prime’s storage.

“I warned you.” Optimus huffed, resting his head on the metal surface of the table. “You may have me chained, but the Matrix still belongs to me. There is nothing you can do about it." 

Starscream turned around and noticed the mysterious device. He went closer to pick it up, curious of what it was. The Seeker activated it and a small holographic screen appeared. It was a picture of Optimus accompanied with Hot Rod on their trip to Six Flags. They were standing in front of a gigantic roller coaster, smiling. Hot Rod’s first time there.

“Well, would you look what do we have here...!” Starscream’s optics flickered and his smirk widened. He showed the picture to Optimus which immediately gasped, optics going wider than ever.

“And who is that young individual supposed to be?” The Prime went silent. “Optimus Prime has a hatchling on his own? How curious!” Shockwave went closer and scanned the picture with his single optic. “I never expected that one day you’d like a heir on your own. He must be a very special individual, must he not?” The Prime felt his fist clenching and his whole frame shaking. Starscream glanced at him mockingly. “I’d love to pay him a visit on our way to Iacon.”

“No!” Optimus almost pleaded. The Seeker chuckled and headed to the exit, hiding the device in his cockpit.

“Find the way to get to the Matrix!” He ordered, walking out of the room. “I’ll take care of our other business.”

\-----

Skyfire tried to break away from his chains. He was in the dark room covered in medical equipment. Breakdown was keeping an eye at him. Suddenly, Starscream walked to the room. The Autobot scientist looked up and grunted his denta.

“Skyfire!” The leader smiled way too friendly. “My, it’s so good to finally see you! Release him.” He quickly told Breakdown. The medic went to Skyfire and unchaned him. The Elite stood on his pedes, seeing Starscream approaching. He rose his fists and grunted his denta, ready to attack. The medic pointed his shoulder canon at him, while Starscream only rose his servos in the air, expression staying calm.

“Breakdown, leave us alone.”

“But-” Before he could protest, the Seeker looked at him with a demanding expression. With heavy spark, the medic obeyed and left the room, leaving two fliers to themselves.

“What’s the meaning of this?!” The Elite shouted.

“Is it bad that I wanted to meet my old friend after eons? By the way, my congratulations! You’re an Elite!”

“We’re not friends, Starscream.” His voice became weirdly intoxicated with venom. “We never were.”

“I considered you a friend.”

“Friends don’t abandon other friends when they achieve their success!”

“That was a long time ago. I had plenty of time to think about my behavior.”

Starscream’s tone was calm, assuring. Skyfire hated himself for slightly lowering his fists.

“I realized my mistakes, Skyfire. All I want is to prove you that I’ve changed.”

The scientist only frowned.

“Somehow I don't believe you. Where’s the rest?”

“Safe. We’re alone.”

“You went through all of this, turned Barricade against his brother, attacked Optimus, just to kidnap me? I highly doupt that.”

“Skyfire…” The Seeker dared to make a step forward. He knew that Skyfire wasn’t going to attack. “I know the situation looks the way it does, but all I’m asking for is a second chance.”

\-----

“It seems that the electric shock contained in the Matrix affected my abilities.” Shockwave stated to himself, looking at his arm. He tried to teleport a few times, but his efforts were meaningless. His frame was as good as useless for now. Optimus was just glancing at him, guard fully raised. “Perhaps I should begin more studies after we’re done.”

“Shockwave.” The Prime called out helplessly. “Whatever Starscream offered you is a lie. He’s going to hurt a lot of Cybertronians! You can stop him!”

“Your sentiment is highly unneccessary.” The scientist replied, turning to the bigger mech. “Starscream has his plan. It can be either successful, or not. That's his problem, I’m just following him.”

“And you’ll let him hurt innocents along the way?!”

Shockwave suddenly glanced at him. His faceplates were numb, emotionless, but Optimus knew that behind that single optic was hiding pure, unspoken rage. Rage aimed at him.

"You chose a poor time to be hypocritical, Pax." His voice was venomous. The Prime felt guilt rising within him.

After a second, Shockwave headed to the exit. “I will return soon. I need more tools for the operation.” He added on the passing, leaving Optimus all by himself.

Optimus’ last glimpse of hope vanished. Now he knew that he could count only on himself, strangled to the table and awaiting the Iacon’s invasion. He knew exacly what kind of mech Starscream was and what he wasn’t afraid to do. Even to a youngling... And the worst part was that there was nothing the Prime could do about it...

....Unless...

There was the last chance he got. A chance buried deep within his spark that was going to be taken away if he wouldn’t take any action.

He just had to focus…

Optimus took a deep vent and closed his optics, easing his frame. His people were in danger. Cybertron was in danger. Hot Rod was in danger. The Decepticons wouldn’t wait for him to make his move, so he had to act now. It’s been a good while since he'd done something like that, but...

“Primus…” He whispered in a shaking voice. “Lend me your power. Please. This is a matter of everything we've been building through generations.”

There was no response. The Prime however wasn’t giving up. "Please... I need to protect my people. I need to be what you intended me to be. I need to be able to move again." He focused on his request and soon, something started happening.

Optimus felt something warming up inside of his chest. His body started hurting at first, but then a massive blast of energy filled his entire frame. The Matrix responded to him. He opened his optics and an intense blue energy errupted from them. With one fast move of his arm, his chains broke.

\-----

“A second chance?!” Skyfire was completely caught off guard by that.

“The past matters very little to me.” Starscream folded his arms behind his back, tilting his head. “I want to start all over.”

“And you need me to do that?”

“Remember all of the science projects we've participated in? Their themes and what they represented?”

“... Help to those most unfortunate...”

“We aimed in different areas, but we always ended up on one goal: To change the world. That’s all I want to do. And I want you to be with me when I'll do.“

"Y... yeah, we’re clearly aiming for something different right now!”

“Do we?”

“Yes, Starscream! We do! I know my priorities and values this time! And I finally see who you reallly are! A MENACE!”

“... And yet you’re still struggling.”

Starscream got him there. He was struggling. The Seeker went closer, completely changing his posture. His expression became more soft and affectionate. His wings dropped. His optics filled young charm and charisma the Elite never thought he'd see again. It was the Starscream Skyfire knew from millions of years ago. His friend. 

“Deep inside, you know that I want what’s best.” Starscream said in assuring tone, putting his servo on his spark chamber. “You know that I’m simply trying to help. You joined the Elites, you should know that sometimes the best decision is the most unacceptable for society. I can assure you that the way I’m following is the most effective.” Starscream smiled as he reached his servo towards Skyfire.

“Join me, old friend. Together, we can improve Cybertron. We can be a team again! It’s going to be just like the good old times! That is a promise.”

The bigger mech looked down at the offered servo. He glanced at it a few moments before looking away. After a second, he returned to his senses and shook his head.

“I’m not sure what kind of idiot you’re taking me for, but if you think that I’m going to participe in anything that involves your twisted ideas, then you’re more wrong than the opinion that Cybertron is pink.” The Seeker suddenly grunted his denta and drew his arm back. The other Starscream completely disappeared.

“You just made a very, very bad choice, Skyfire.”

;Starscream! ; Breakdown shouted through the comn link. “Optimus escaped!”

“Optimus?!” Skyfire’s optics widened. Starscream groaned and ran towards the exit.

“Hey!” The scientist tried to follow him, but he felt a sharp impact on his frame. He fell down, unable to pull himself off the ground. The Elite looked behind him and saw a laser chain appearing on his leg. He punched the ground in anger.

“I knew it!"

\-----

Optimus managed to escape from Shockwave’s laboratory. Unfortunately, he was spotted right after he entered the hallway. Shockwave and Breakdown were chasing him down, occasionally shooting at him.

“Seriously, stop already!” Breakdown shouted, smashing his hammers together. “You have nowhere to run!”

Optimus ignored him and made a bold move of transforming. His frame hurt a bit, but he changed to his truck mode and drove off. Shockwave followed his steps and transformed into a battle tank. He began his chase, leaving the medic behind. 

Optimus found an opened room which he decided to enter. He transformed back and threw a punch at the wall, smashing a controlling panel in process. The metal doors imediately closed.

—–

Shockwave didn’t manage to fit in. He transformed back, scanning the door.

“What are you doing?!” Breakdown barked.

“Nemesis is still my ship.” Shockwave waid calmly. “I don’t want any more damages on it.”

“Are you fraggin’ serious?!”

“Deadly serious.”

Breakdown groaned.

“Fine! Let’s find some other way!”

—–

Optimus was listening through the door. When he heard his enemies retreating, he sighned in relief.

;Optim-; Suddenly, a cracked voice sounded behind him. Prime turned around, highly alarmed, but the owner of the voice wasn’t around.

;Opt-, -ou copy?” After a second, he realized that the sound was coming from his audials. The Prime opened his comn link and whispered.

“Bumblebee? Is that you?”

;Thank Pri-; There was a loud static noise before the line cleared for a brief second. ;-ought that they- -you!;

The sound was being interrupted by the magnetic shield around. That meant calling for help from the outside wasn’t an option as well.

“Bumblebee, I want you to listen carefully. The Decepticons are heading to Iacon. They plan to attack it. We have to stop them at all costs!”

;-u sound hurt..;

“I’m going to be more hurt if my apprentice and million others will find themselves in great danger! Go to the Captain Bridge and make sure this ship will never reach Iacon! I’ll call for help!”

When Bumblebee didn’t reply, the Prime started worrying. After some time, the line cleared again and the yellow bot responded with:

;Yes, sir!;

Optimus hanged up, looking around. He was in some kind of magazine. There was a big machine with energon cubes laying all around it. That must’ve been the ship’s core. Prime started scanning it until he spotted a window. Not the best way out, but he’d be more than happy to live through it.

\-----

“Who touched my computer?! Slipstream shouted as she walked to the room. “We’re heading in the wrong direction! I swear, I’m leaving for a nano click and suddenly everything’s-” When she tried to rewrite the coordinates, the panel suddenly started working on it’s own. The femmie’s optics widened.

“What in the ever loving frag is happening?!”

Without any warning, she was kicked in the face by an invisible force which made her step back. After a second, a small figure appeared in front of her, grinning. It was Bumblebee.

“Ma’am, I am afraid that you have some bugs!”

The pilot groaned and rushed at the scout with her sharp talons. Bumblebee quickly dodged them and cut the Seeker’s leg, making her fall. He tried to ran to the panel, but Slipstream caught him and pulled him to herself, trying to cut his faceplates. Bumblebee managed to get away in the last second and her talons colided with the floor. The yellow bot made a soft squeak.

“Where did you even get that?!” Slipstream only smirked.

“You’d be surprised how many things I managed to snatch in the Alchemor.”

\-----

Optimus climped all the way up to the roof. He noticed that the ship was getting lower. After some time, it’s clocking was turned off as well. Thankfully, it managed to fly away from the Iacon.

“Ultra Magnus!” The Prime activated his comn link, trying to reach the High Protector. He managed to pick the signal, but...

"Running on a roof, Prime?" Optimus turned around, seeing Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave arriving. The carrier stepped from the group and activated his disks.

:Minicons: Nautralize!: He ordered as the Cassettes emerged and rushed at Optimus. The blue and red mech shielded himself from Rumble’s piledrivers while catching his twin by the leg. Lazerbeak and Batrat were circling him in the air, trying to stun him with their sonic waves. Optimus swung Frenzy around, throwing him at the flying Micons. Soon, the rest joined the fight.

They tried to knock each other down for some time, when suddenly Rumble noticed something.

“Ha! Now you’re trashed!” The Minicon cheered, pointing his digit on the distant sky. “Reinforcement are here!”

“Reinforcements?” All of the present asked, including the Decepticons. They looked in the direction Rumble was pointing. Something was indeed on the sky and coming right at them. As soon as the object was close enough to recognize, Starscream’s jaw dropped and his optics widened.

The object turned out to be a Seeker jet. It landed on the roof and transformed, revealing a gigantic surprise to everyone.

Megatron.

All of the mechs gasped. The rebel looked up, scanning everyone around him. His gaze locked with Starscream.

“HELLO, Starscream!” He said in a way too optimistic tone as his lipplates curled into a smug grin. “It’s been a while!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starscream's about to get a grounding of his lifetime. Let's hope that nothing goes wrong on the way :)


	11. The moment when everything went wrong

Location: Busy centre of Vos.

Barricade transformed and ran into the crowd, trying to lose Prowl. The sound of police siren made people step back and look around, confused. The other enforcer transformed and followed. Seeing him, people were getting out of the way.

The younger policebot felt his adrenaline rising. The police siren only made it worse. Barricade made a mistake of looking back and suddenly, he crashed on another mech which was holding a large stack of datapads. Both of them fell, dropping the items they were holding, creating a gigantic mess. The ex enforcer’s panic rose. 

“Watch where you’re going!” The mech growled and started picking up his datapads.

“Hold on, you have some of mine in there!” Barricade shouted, trying to seek for his belongings. Suddenly, the siren got louder. The ex enforcer decided to not take any chances and grabbed a few random datapads he could find and ran away.

“Hey! Get back here and help me, aft!” The mech furiously rose his fist in the air. Seconds after, Prowl ran next to him.

“Stop that mech!” He shouted on the passing.

Barricade found himself in the market area. He pushed a couple of bots out of his way, making them fall as he ran forward. He almost destroyed a booth of Colourful Energon Goodies and almost crashed on a window of a car wash while trying to get away. Even then, Prowl was right behind him.

The ex enforcer passed a small alley and found himself on the dead end.

“Scrap...” He murmured, trying to turn around.

“Barricade!” Unfortunately, he saw his brother catching up. It seemed that there was no other way out, but up. He had no other choice than to try and escape at any cost whatsoever.

The ex enforcer ran to the wall and jumped on it. He started bouncing from wall to wall, making his way up to the traffic above the market area. Prowl stopped, staring at his brother as he climbed his way up. When did he learn such technique?

Unfortunately, there was no time to get an answer, because Barricade was getting away. Prowl turned around and transformed, driving towards the spot his brother was getting to.

Barricade climbed his way up the traffic, falling flat on an empty road. At this time of a day no one should be using it. Especially when the majority of the city were mostly fliers. The soon-to-be-Decepticon ex vented in relief. Suddenly, he realized something. The ex enforcer started searching his storage, trying not to crash anything inside, especially thye datapads he almost lost.

“Pleasedon’tbelostpleasedon’tbelostpleasedon’tbelostpleasepleaseplease... PHEW!” After a second, he drew out his tracking device.

“Thank **you!”** Barricade pressed his forehead to it, feeling even bigger relief. He activated it, seeing a red dot on it’s screen which showed a location of his groundbridge. Thankfully, it wasn’t that far, but he still had to cross at least three streets to get there. He could hear a faint sound of screeching tires approaching in the distance. Barricade rolled his optics and looked down. There were buildings of every shape and size all around him. Some were so closely located that someone could use them as an actual bridge.

Someone...

“Well...” The ex enforcer shrugged. “When Primus gives you lugnuts, you build an oil station.” And with that attitude, he started jumping from roof to roof, making his way to the chosen building.

Nothing seemed to be working according to Starscream’s plan, but at least his brother didn’t know about his condition yet.

\-----

Meanwhile on the Nemesis, everyone was staring in shock at the new arrival which turned out to be supposedly dead Megatron. After some time, Ravage stepped away from his shadow, revealing himself. The Cassettes gasped at once while Soundwave covered his mask with both of his servos.

Megatron stood up and stepped closer to the group so they could see him better.

“Hi Shockwave.” He turned to Shockwave on his way and smiled. The scientist didn’t respond.

"B-but-”

“-we thought you died!” The Minicon twins bubbled out.

“Oh, I bet!” Megatron presented his injuries to them. “If someone walked to you in a similiar state, you’d consider ghosts actually being real! Isn’t that right, Starscream?”

Starscream only made a small, nervous chuckle, trying to hide his rising fear. The Seeker felt all optics on him which made his confidence slowly disappear. “Megatron, I…” He went closer, putting his servo on Megatron’s arm, and smiled.

“Megatron! I- I can’t believe this! You’re alive!” The Seeker put on the best expression he had, but Megatron seemed unaffected. In fact, he seemed more irritated than anything. “I saw on my own optics that the enforcer shot you! It was too late to stop him… I thought I’m never going to forgive myself!”

The rebel suddenly grabbed his servo and scanned his fusion canon installed on the Starscream’s arm.

“I see.” He smirked. “And I also see that you weren’t wasting any time with picking a new leader.”

“W-well. You see, we were quite desperate!” Starscream stepped back, freeing his arm. “I took the fusion canon only to protect myself and I knew exacly that you’d want me to be the next leader! I made the most rational decision I could!”

Optimus didn’t know what to make out of the whole situation, but he knew that he wasn’t going to waste any more time. He stepped out of the picture and tried to reach the High Protector again.

“Ultra Magnus, do you copy?”

—–

“Optimus Prime?” Ultra Magnus picked up, completely shocked. He wasn’t expecting that his leader would contact them this soon.

“Yes, sir. Yes. Understood.” The commander hanged up and looked at Perceptor. “I have their location! Make sure that the backup is avaliable! This is not an intervention anymore!”

The detective didn’t know what was happening, but judging by his superior’s expression, it was bad. He saluted and opened his comn link.

—–

“Well then, Starscream. What was your plan then? The last thing I checked we didn’t have an armed spaceship.”

Optimus returned to the situation he was witnessing. He decided that tactical retreat would be the best option for now. The Prime quietly backed off and snuck to the entrance the Decepticons came from and returned inside. Hopefully no one saw him doing that.

“I... I wanted to make sure that Prime won’t destroy the future we’ve all been working so long for!” Starscream tried his best, but even the Decepticons around started looking suspicous. “He can’t be trusted with the power-”

“All I see right no is how **you** can’t be trusted with it.”

“Megatro-”

**“Enough!”** As soon as the other commanded, not asked, commanded, the Seeker shut himself up. The bigger mech’s vents hissed, optics shutting for a moment as he looked away.

”Back in the Alchemor, when I was shot, there were no guards around. If your statements are true, why didn’t they lock me up again? No, I was completely alone. And yet, you know about the accident.”

“I-”

“I want you to be truthful, Starscream.” Megatron looked back, optics narrowing slightly and voice growing deeper. “Were you trying to free me in the first place?”

Starscream took a quick glance at his comrades. They were all looking at him, expecting an answer. But the only response he could give was silence. And so, silence he gave. Megatron’s ask was answered.

The rebel’s expression softened with pain. He felt like a deep wound sinked in his spark, deeper than any damage he took.

“... Well.” Megatron suddenly clenched his fist, voice cracking a bit. “You don’t leave me much choice then.”

Megatron started walking towards the Seeker which immediately backed off. His expression stayed softened. He even found some strenght to smile.

“You know, I was thinking to myself. How would the day of our reunion look like. What would I say to you. How would I feel towards you after so many years. How would you, or others feel towards me. Cycles after cycles, aIwas looking for the right words and gestures. I went though countless scenarios of how it would look like. I was planning what I was going to say. Tell you how happy, hopefull, proud you made me feel. But now…” As quickly as it appeared, Megatron’s smile disappeared and was replaced by an angered grimance. “I feel nothing but disappointment.”

Without any warning, Megatron reached his servo to Starscream.

“My fusion canon.” He requested. The Seeker nervously glanced at his arm, then back at Megatron.

“M-Megatron, but-”

“I want it back. You are no longer the leader.”

“I made it!”

“For me. It’s mine.”

Starscream was silent for a while. Megatron grew impateint.

“Give it. Now.”

The Seeker finally clenched his fist, then looked at the bigger mech and grunted his denta, hissing:

“No.”

All of the present Decepticons widened their optics, except Shockwave. Megatron’s was surprised too at first. Then, he felt pure anger.

\-----

“Stop it!!!” Slipstream pushed Bumblebee from the panel, trying to reagin control over the ship. “You’re going to kill us all!”

“You were the one who tried to kill everyone!” The yellow bot jumped on her back, pulling out his Stinger. The Seeker femmie tried to shake his off, flapping her wings in his face. Bumblebee took a few attacks before blocking her wings with his one pede and one arm.

“Get your yellow aft out of my face!”

“Stop trying to invade my city then, you- **mountain!”**

Bumblebee suddenly pointed his digit forward. Slipstream quickly turned her attention back to where they were heading. The Nemesis went off course and was heading on a giant mountain near the Sea of Rust. The pilot made a startled gasp and as fast as she could, steered the ship out of the way. Side of the ship didn’t make it through and collided with the mountain, causing a strong impact and a few falling metal pieces on the ship’s roof.

\------

The rebel stepped closer, reaching for Starscream’s arm, trying to tear the weapon away. He was about to reclaim it, when suddenly the ship hit the surface of the mountain. All of the Decepticons lost their balance, trying to cover themselves from falling metal. Soundwave got distracted and was hit by one of them by an accident. He was brutally pushed from the roof and landed on one of the ship’s sides.

“Soundwave!” All of his Minicons shouted, running after their carrier.

“No...” Ravage quickly joined them.

Starscream decided to take that opportunity. He pushed Megatron back and charged his fusion canon. Without any hesitations, he fired a shot right in Megatron’s spark chamber.

After reclaiming his balance, the rebel saw the incoming attack. He couldn’t dodge it no matter how fast he’d be but suddenly he felt a familiar wamrth in his spark.

Before the shot reached him, the mech disappeared. It hit the metal surface of the ship instead.

“What?!” The Seeker widened his optics. Megatron reappeared after a second.

“... How...?”

“Were you seriously trying to shoot me right no-” The rebel disappeared again.

“-w.” He appeared next to his previous spot after seconds. Starscream was exremely confused. Shockwave’s optic suddenly shined with realization.

Megatron’s frame rushed a quick charge of energy as he started appearing and reappear in a few places of the roof, his last on removing him from it completely.

“What is happening to him?”

“I need to go near him.” Shockwave said, teleporting away.

Starscream looked around. Optimus wasn’t there anymore as well. The Seeker snarled, punching the ground.

\-----

Barricade swirled around a metal pole on one of the buildings and looked around. He was in the west side of Vos, right near the Flier Force Academy. He looked at his tracking device. The soon-to-be-Decepticon was getting near. He decided to slow down a bit. He jumped off a pole and supported himself with the wall, ex venting loudly. It was terrifying how much energy he lost in that one single day. His spark was going insane.

He felt like he needed to eat.

Barricade told himself that the sooner he reach his destination, the better. There was one more building to cross and he’d be done. He’d finally be done. No more escapes, no more running, no more Pro-

Ping.

Suddenly, the ex enforcer heard a faint sound of an elevator.

He turned around and saw the building’s floor splitting up and a very angry Prowl rushing from it right at him.

Barricade couldn’t surprass a small shriek of fear as he tried to jump on his last building. It was too late however because the older policebot managed to catch him, pinning him to the ground.

“How did you find me?!” The ex enforcer squeaked.

“You’re literally the only mech in Vos who was jumping from building to building, dumbaft! Figure it out!”

Primus, he was so bad at being a criminal.

\-----

Optimus was trying to find Bumblebee when suddenly a big figure hit the wall right before him.

“Ouch…” The figure murmured softly as it slid to the ground. The Prime immediately recognized it.

“Megatron?” Megatron looked up. “Ori... I mean... Optimus...?”

Optimus immediately helped him on his pedes, smiling under his battle mask. “Megatron, you’re-”

Before he had a chance to finish, the rebel threw a punch at his faceplates. Optimus immediately stepped back and covered his mouth. 

“Ouch...”

“You lying, foolish, ** cowardly Pit-spawn of burning slag!”**

Optimus could tell that the other was over Luna 2 to see him. He took his servo out of his faceplates and looked at his ex friend sadly.

“I... apologize. I didn’t expect to meet you in such circumstances.”

“Well, I didn’t plan on meeting you either, so imagine my disappointment.”

“I figured. Listen, I know that you might be very mad at me-”

“Might be?!”

“-but Starscream is trying to invade Iacon! There is no time to waste, countless lives are at stake right now!” Megatron’s angered expression softened by a faint shade of fear. He already knew that Starscream needed a battleship for something, but invading a city full of unarmed civilians? 

“I know it’s alot to ask, but you have to help me! He’s not going to stop until he'll get what he wants!”

“... Doesn’t that remind you of something?” Megatron suddenly asked in a low tone, frowning. That was far from the right time, but it was immensely bothering him. Optimus didn't answer.

“It does, doesn't it. And it should."

“Megatron, I... I’m sorry. I really am.”

“... Oh, now you’re sorry.” Megatron let out a dark chuckle. “After so many years, now that everything is falling apart, you’re **sorry.”**

“That’s not true-”

**“You took everything from me!”** The Decepticon suddenly errupted. No one in the whole galaxy knew how to provoke Megatron as good as Optimus did.

"My rebelion, my freedom, **my life!** And now you dare to drag me back into all this?!"

“I know, I really do! I made a huge mistake and I'm going to live with it for the rest of my life! I wish I could turn back time and fix it, but I can't!”

"If you regret it so much why weren't you there when I needed you afterwards?! I needed you so bad and not once did you show up! You can shove that regret up your pipe, maybe that'll finally soften your gigantic ego a bit!" 

Suddenly the Prime noticed something changing within Megatron and widened his optics.

“Megatron-” He reached his servo towards him, but the other mech quickly slapped it back. "I sacrificed myself so you could become a Prime! I sacrificed myself so my Decepticons could have a second chance on this planet! And you betrayed me!" 

“Megatron, listen-”

**“No!** Now **you're** going to listen! I'm going to stop Starscream, not because I care, because no one else deserves to suffer because of you. And when I'll do that, you'll return to your Elites, tell them to stop searching for me, and leave me the frag alone! Am I making myself clear?" 

“Megatron.”

“I asked if I'm making myself clea-″ Suddenly, Megatron disappeared. The Prime blinked and looked around, seeing how Megatron teleported behind him. He himself realized it after a second. He looked around, utterly confused.

“How long have you been disappearing like this?” Optimus asked, highly concerned.

“Oh, frag **off!**Don’t tell me you also had some-” After a second, he disappeared again. 

“-mething to do with...” He appeared six steps away from his previous spot. “Uh...”

“Listen, I know that you hate me.” The Prime ran to him. “And you’re right! You have all the rights to hate me! But please, you have to control your anger!”

“And why should I-?!” As Megatron growled, his frame began flickering. The heat in his chest rose and the raw energy around him was getting more visible. He looked down at his servos.

“What the...”

Optimus managed to catch Megatron by his arms. “Please, calm down! This is going to get only worse!”

“What have you done to me?!”

“It’s Shockwave’s experiment! You’re going to desintegrate if you won’t calm down!”

“I’m going to **what?!**-” Before the Decepticon managed to finish, he disappeared again. Prime tried to hold onto him, but he only managed to catch the atmoshpere around.

Suddenly, Optimus felt like something was coming right at him. He made a dodge and sword flew past him, getting stuck in the wall.

“I'm sorry, were you going somewhere?” The Prime turned around and saw Starscream flying at him in his jet mode. Before Optimus could make another dodge, the jet bumbed into him, sending him on the wall with a huge impact which echoed through the corridor. The Decepticon transformed and grabbed the sword he threw, tying to stab Optimus with it. Optimus managed to roll away from his attack and reach to his storage. He took out his shield and activated it, making Starscream’s sword get stuck in it. After he blocked the Decepticon’s attack, he pushed him off and searched for his axe. Unfortunately, it looked like it was missing.

Starscream snarled. With one swift move of his arm, his sword broke and twisted into an electric whip, then he rushed back at him with a battle cry.

\-----

“Why did you do that?” Prowl threw another punch at Barricade. Instead of him, he hit the metal surface of the ground which bended to his strenght. “Why?!”

“You’re not going to understand!” The ex enforcer dodged and pushed his brother with his shoulder, trying to get away. “I had to do it!”

The older enforcer grabbed Barricade’s leg and managed to pull him back. 

“No, you didn’t!” The younger bot’s audials ached from his brother’s harsh tone. Prowl jumped and aimed another hit at Barricade which quickly rolled away from it.

More items fell out of the soon-to-be-Decepticon’s storage, falling off the building.

“No!” He tried to escape Prowl, but the older policebot managed to grab him from behind and hold him by his collar with both of his arms.

“You were my brother! I loved you with all my spark! I refused to believe that you would do such thing, but apparently I was solemnly mistaken!” The enforcer accused. “You didn’t care, did you?! You didn’t care about me, or duty, or anything! You didn’t care about anything other than yourself!”

Every word hurt Barricade like Pit. Every little accusation felt like a solid stab in his spark. But instead of pain, he felt a familiar poison rising withing him

Something was about to happen and he needed to hide.

Barricade tried to get away from his brother’s grip, but it was too strong. His vents took a painful ammount of air to his system as he tried to somehow suplex his brother.

“You took the first chance you had to escape! You chose Cybertron’s most dangerous criminals over your borther! Over your friends! Over whole planet even! For what?!”

“Please, stop…!” Barricade begged, trying to squeeze sparks forming in his optics. He tried to control himself as best as he could, but he felt like he was slipping away with every second.

“Answer! What did they offer to you to sacrifice this much?!” Prowl almost squeezed his brother’s frame, making him cry out of pain. “Money?! Power?! I knew Stasrcream for a long time, whatever he offered you is a lie!”

“M-maybe I was just trying to get away from Barricade didn’t know why he said that. He didn’t mean it at all, but it seemed to be working. The older officer’s grip losened greatly and after a second, he finally let go of the ex enforcer.

“… I see… I see.” The soon-to-be-Decepticon didn’t have strenght to stand up. “In that case, you leave me no choice.” The older policebot pulled out his stasis cuffs and walked closer, grabbing the younger mech’s arm.

“Barricade of Prax. You are arrested for treason. You an no longer an enforcer. Nor an Elite... Nor my brother.” Despite being spoken calmly, the last sentence was spit out like a venom on Barricade’s already open wound.

It was too much. The hunger. The adrenaline. The disgust in his brother’s voice. He couldn’t take it anymore.

Without any warning, the ex enforcer turned around and bit his brother’s arm. His faceplates cracked, revealing a powerful jaw full of sharp denta, dripping with some weird purple substance. The older policebot cried out of pain, droppingh his cuffs. After he let go, he loudly roared at Prowl like a beast.

The enforcer widened his optics, drawing his injured arm back with a startled whimper. He looked at the other with pure horror, refusing to believe what his optics were seeing.

Barricade regained part of his sanity after a second. He could feel the deep metallic sound that was escaping his mouth as he scanned the area around him. Everything seemed different from that perspective.

“Barricade…?”

The only response Prowl received was a deep growl. Barricade made a step back and turned around, jumping.

“No!” Prowl rushed after him. He observed as his deformed ex brother bounced off a metal pole on the side of the building and reached the last place he had to arrive at. The groundbridge was right behind it. Before entering, Barricade looked at Prowl with cold optics for the last time. He called out again, this time more desperate, but the ex enforcer refused to resopnd. Finally, he crossed the portal and disappeared.

The enforcer just stared down at his arm, optics widened.

“Barricade…” He whispered, feeling his voice cracking. “What happened to you?” \-----

Megatron was teleporting non stop. He couldn’t grab onto anything or cry for help. His chest was feeling warmer with each teleport.

He landed on a wall, trying to open his chest. Then disappeared.

He fell on the ground, managing to grab his sparkchamber. Then disappeared.

He fell from one room to another, looking for any malfunction. Unfortunately, he was no medic nor an engineer so he couldn’t tell what was wrong. The only thing he could tell was that all of it was getting rather painful. He almost burned his servo by simply touching the surface of his spark. Then, he disappeared again.

Another telepport took him to Shockwave’s laboratory. He knocked a table the scientist has been working on, making his inventions fall all over the place.

“Stop!” Megatron screamed to himself, trying to bury his spark in his servos. A sudden outburst of energy forced him to back off and stop messing with his system.

The energy filling his frame started rising. Soon, it was so visible that the whole room seemed to be filling with it. It reached the ceiling where Shockwave’s SpaceBridge was located. The rebel’s outburst caused a few sparks coming from it. Without any warning, the SpaceBridge activated.

Megatron felt that.

He felt that immeidately and very painfully.

He fell on his knees, grabbing his head and screming. The energy was swirling around, buzzing dangerously as his own spark joined with the SpaceBridge.

\-----

Barricade arrived at the Nemesis. His vents were hissing and his body turning back to normal. He still couldn’t believe what he did. Now Prowl knew about his sercet and was against him too.

Now, it truly was over.

The ex enforcer heard footsteps coming his way. He turned around and saw Breakdown stopping before him. 

“I, uh... I’m back.” Barricade smiled nervously to the mech.

“I can see that.” Breakdown replied. “You’re late.”

“Sorry, I... had some complications on the way.”

Suddenly, the groundbridge the ex enforcer walked from started buzzing. Barricade made a step back.

“What’s happening?!”

“Don’t know, don’t care!” Breakdown grabbed the tinier mech by his arms and ran with him forward. “The Prime’s escaping!”

**“Who’s** escaping?!”

\-----

Starscream scrached Prime's chest, making one of his front windows shatter and tried to attack him with his whip. Optimus made a step back and catched his whip, pulling him closer. The Seeker growled, lowering his body. He slid between the bigger bot's legs and let go of his whip, shooting a single missile at the Prime's back. Optimus screamed and fell on the ground. Starscream activated the fusion canon and aimed at the red and blue mech.

“At least I can have this satisfaction of finishing you off.” He hissed. Suddenly, next to Optimus appeared a middle sized groundridge. It made the Seeker lose his focus. The portal was followed by many different similiar appearing out of nowhere.

“What is the meaning of this?!” The Prime looked up and noticed that another groundbridge appeared behind Starscream. His optics filled unknown courage. While the Seeker was looking around, Optimus cut him and concentrating all of his might in his shoulder, he pushed the Decepticon leader to it. Starscream made a startled yelp and fell into the portal teleporting away. The Prime made a step back, trying to support himself with the wall. The portals started appearing and disappearing randomly.

“No...” His optics widened. The leader opened his comn link.

“Bumblebee!” Optimus shouted. Unfortunately, the scout wasn’t responding. The Prime decided to transform and drive around, trying to find either him or a way out.

He really hoped Ultra Magnus was on his way.

\-----

Megatron’s body was all over the place. He felt like he was everywhere but at the same time nowhere. His systems gave him a warning that he was overheating very quickly. His voice felt deformed, sometimes even non existent. The pain was growing and growing and the rebel was at the edge of snapping.

“Megatron!” Suddenly, he heard a deep familiar voice. 

“sHoCkWaVe?!” His voice was ringing in his audials. He couldn’t tell if he was yelling or whispering,

Without any warning, Shockwave pinned Megatron to the wall.

“Your power is unstable!” He said.

“pOwEr?!” The rebel felt like his spark heat was growing. His whole frame was bursting with an unknown energy which seemed to start affecting the scientist as well.

"Focus on your emotion!" Shockwave instructed, feeling like his frame was heating up. "Let it be your power source!"

Megatron screamed, feeling like his spark was about to melt.

"Don't focus on pain!"

"i’M tRyInG!"

"Think of something else! Something that will ease your mind! Do it, or you’ll die!"

The rebel's systems were about to overload. His frame was at the edge of collapsing. His mind was shattering and everything was pure chaos.

But at the same time... Megatron felt his vents catching up. He was trying to calm down.

He had to think about something else...

He remembered the canyon, Ravage, his first steps, laughter, and the pain he felt after betrayal.

Now that he was free, he had to die?

No.

He didn't want it to end like this. He wanted to enjoy everything his new life had to offer. He wanted to live it like he never did. Enjoy every moment and every nanocklick. He wanted to live.

Vent... and ex vent...

When Megatron started calming down, Shockwave noticed it.

"Now, think about the location you want to go to! Get us out of here!"

The rebel thought of a location. He didn’t care about the place he would arrive at, he just wanted to get away as far as he could. Somewhere where no policebot, nor Prime would ever find him. Somewhere safe.

And with that, he flashed out.

When Megatron teleported, the SpaceBridge went insane. The whole Nemesis started cracking up, piece by piece getting destroyed.

\-----

Ravage along with the other Minicons managed to help Soundwave back to the roof.

“Are you alright, boss?” Frenzy asked. The carrier only nodded and looked around, spotting the cat.

:Ravage…: He reached his servo towards the lost Cassette. Ravage couldn’t help, but press his forehead to the touch and let out a small purr. Soundwave’s gaze softened as he drew the cat closer, touching their foreheads together.

:You made it.:

“Yeah… I did.”

“Ya old bucket of scrap!” Rumble laughed, pulling Ravage away from their carrier and hugged him tightly. “You gave us a fright!”

“Well, now you know that I’m well and- HEY!” All of the Cassettes at once gathered around the Minicon and created a giant cuddle pile around him. Soundwave couldn't help, but let out a small metallic chuckle.

“Guys, come on… Guys… GUYS!” Ravage backed off, releasing himself from others. “That’s enough!”

“Where have you been?” Batrat asked, curling his wings to his chest.

“Yeah, we thought you joined the Allspark!” Rumble laughed. Frenzy immediately nudged his arm, shaking his head.

“I was with Megatron the entire time. He took alot of damage, but I managed to lead him out of the Alchemor.”

Soundwave went silent.

“Isn’t Megatron, like, dead?”

“Rumble...”

“What?! That’s what Starscream told us! I wanna know!”

“Starscream is lying. He was the one who shot Megatron in the first place. Thankfully, I was there just in time to stop him. Megatron needs our help more than anything.”

:Ravage.: the carrier finally stepped to the Minicon and kneeled before him. Ravage straightened up, feeling Soundwave’s servo on his head.

:... I am officialy relieveing you of your duty to protect Megatron. You did a good job.: The lost Cassette rose an optical rigde.

“So... that means we’re joining Megatron?”

:No.: Soundwave shook his helm. :We’re staying.:

“Y… you can’t be serious.” Ravage stepped back. “You want to leave Megatron just like that? For Starscream?!”

:Our loyalty lies in the Decepticon cause. We need to follow the leader, no matter who would it be.:

“But... Stasrcream’s a liar and a traitor! Megatron is our friend! You just want to leave him?!”

There was no answer given to him. The Minicon looked at the rest of his associates.

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

The Cassettes started looking away. Batrat covered his mouth, Rumble scratched his back plating, Frenzy grabbed his arm and Lazerbeak looked down.

“I mean...” Frezny started sheepishly. “We kinda owe that to Starscream. I don’t think he’d let us go just like that.”

“Yeah.” Rumble joined. “I mean, I wouldn’t like if he’d get a revenge on us or something.”

“Cowards!”

:Ravage!: 

Ravage stopped. Soundwave stood up and looked seriously at him. :I almost lost you once today. I don’t want you to ever risk yourself like that again. Be that for me, or Megatron.:

“But-”

:Understood?:

The Cassette looked away. The carrier ex vented. :The most important thing is, we’re all here. No matter what happens, we can deal with that together. None of us have to be alone anymore.:

“Except Megatron...”

Suddenly, the group noticed the groundbridges appearing.

“Uh... What’s going on?” Frenzy rose his optical ridge.

“Are those our groundbridges?”

:No.: Soundwave widened his optics in fear. :The Elites must have found us!:

Ravage noticed that a small groundbridge appeared near him. A quick thought rushed through his mind which Soundwave quickly picked up.

:Ravage, don’t you dare.; He said in a warning tone.

”… Sorry, Soundwave.“ Ravage turned his head to his carrier for the last time. “I have a mission.” 

:No!: The Cassette ran to the portal and disappeared before the carrier could stop him.

“What is he doing?!” Batrat grabbed his head.

“Boss, what are we going to do now?!” Frenzy nudged Soundwave’s leg.

:Minicons: Tranform!: The carrier ordered. All of the Minicons transformed and jumped back to his disk.

Without thinking, the Decepticon rushed after Ravage.

\-----

Skyfire noticed that his chains disappeared. He quickly rose himself from the ground and looked around. He spotted a few groundbridges appearing in front of him.

"I knew they'd come!" The scientist smiled, thinking that the portal was sent by the Elites as well. Without any thinking, he crossed the biggest one he could find and teleported as well.

\-----

“Maybe we should run? I mean, the others propably launched themselves out of here by now!”

“First we have to make sure Prime didn't!”

“You sure you want to drag me with yourself? I mean, I’m pretty allergic to authority figures!”

“Most certainly!”

"Okay, but Optimus is pretty- Uuuh, Breakdown?"

"Oh, quit panicking you-!" Breakdown's optic widened after he turned around to face the panicked ex enforcer. Barricade was just staring in shock. The whole back of the ship disappeared.

"Now we can run?" The soon-to-be-Decepticon asked, making a small step forward.

"Yeah." The medic quickly nodded. Both of them immediately transformed and drove forward. They were catched in the groundbridge seconds after.

\-----

Optimus tried to drive away. At this point he saw nothing but appearing groundbridged and parts of the ship flying out of it’s places. He couldn’t see where he was driving, he just knew that he was getting away. Every direction was a good direction as long as he had some chances to survive. The Prime was in a seemingly safe distance when suddenly, he felt the ground beneath him melt. Before he knew, he was falling head first to the sea.

“Ultra Magnus!” Optimus comned his High Protector again.

;Sir!; This time, Ultra Magnus managed to pick up without any trouble. “The reinforcments are on their wa-!”

“I need a groundbridge immediately! My coordinates are 3-”

Before he had a chance to finish, before he managed to get away enough from the ship, a gigantic explosion errupted.

\-----

Ultra Magnus and Perceptor were driving towards Iacon when they saw a powerful blast of energy shining in near the great Sea of Rust. Both of them tranformed, optics widening.

“Rescue bots.” The High Protector looked at Perceptor. “NOW!”

“Copy!”

\-----

Hot Rod was sitting on his berth when he saw something flashing from his window. He turned around, seeing the exposion from afar.

"Whoah..." He murmured, opening his window. The explosion disappeared after some time. The red Speedster decided to open his comn link.

;Yes?; Moonracer picked up.

"Moony, did you see that?"

;See what?;

"That explosion!"

;I think everyone saw it!;

"It looked really dangerous. Something must've happened there."

;Yeah...;

The was a silence before Moonracer spoke again.

;You want to explore it, don't you?;

Hot Rod grinned. "Yep."


	12. I will protect you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The real adventure begins...

“You just love getting into trouble, do you?” Moonracer eyed her friend, walking on a straight path.

“Hey, I promised OP that I’d stop! There won’t be any chances to do it again, so I’m taking the last opportunity I got!” Hot Rod was balancing on metal bumps next to the path. After a second, he returned on the solid ground, landing next to his amica.

“Look at you, finally returning to the light side.” The sea green Speedster grinned, crossing her arms.

“About time, huh?” Hot Rod chuckled, shrugging. He stopped for a second and nudged Moonracer with his elbow, winking. “I’m not as rebelious as you’d think I am.”

“I know a few bots who’d love to see this version of you. By the way, how did you manage to pass Bulkhead?”

“I told him that we were out of Energon, so he went to the store. He’s always spending cycles trying to pick the right supplies, so I wouldn’t worry about him. I doupt he even saw the explosion.”

“I’m taking back what I said.” Moonracer gave him a judgmental glance.

“I plan on returning before he gets back. I don’t need to hear another lecture about the amaaaazing woooorld of responsiiiiibiiiiliiiity.” Hot Rod waved his servos, making a deadpan expression. Moonracer snorted.

“You still have a long path to cross, young bot.”

“How about you’ll teach me your ways then, oh great master of stiffness.” The red youngling ran before his friend and bowed deeply.

“Oh, how dare you?!” The sea green femmie muffled her giggle and pushed Hot Rod, making him lose his balance. A dangerous smirk crossed his faceplates as soon as he looked back her. Without risking a terrifying revenge, Moonracer ran away from him, bursting into laughter.

“Get back here!” Hot Rod laughed along and started chasing her.

After some time, the femmie stopped, seeing the end of the road. The red Speedster accidentally tackled her, making both of them fall on a small blue hill. They rolled down, landing on their backs as they erupted into laughter once again.

Suddenly, the younglings heard a faint noise in the distance. They immediately stood up, looking around.

“Thast sound like..”

“Hide!” Moonracer pushed her amica behid the nearest pile of metal and hid herself as well. A few rescue vehicles quickly drove near them with their sirens on.

The two younglings peeked from their hiding spot.

“Rescue bots?” Hot Rod rose an optical ridge. Whenever Rescue bots were near, it was always a bad sign.

“That must have been some serious accident.”

“Yeah…” The red Speedster jumped out of his hiding and transformed.

“Hot Rod, wait!” Moonracer whispered. “What are you doing?”

“Someone might need help!” The mech turned his front towards the femmie.

“That’s what Rescue bots are for! It’s literally in their name! Come on, they’re going to spot us immediately!”

“As Kup used to say: ‘Getting caught and getting captured are two different things, lad!’” Hot Rod chuckled, trying to imitate the old local war hero’s voice. “You can guard behind if you want!” Before Moonracer could reply, the mech stepped on his gas and drove off.

“It’s called ‘guard the rear!’ If you’re going to use military language, at least get it right!… Wait!“ The femmie groaned in irritation and followed him.

—–

Hot Rod transformed and hid behind another hill.

“I told you to wait!” Moonracer catched up and hit his amica’s arm. “Hot Rod, you can’t just jump into any situation without a plan and rely on nothing more than your lu…” The sea geen femmie’s optics catched a glimpse of the thing her friend was looking at. She turned her attention towards it.

There was a gigantic mess around. Parts of a broken ship were laying everywhere, some of them still burning.

“Wow…” Moonracer whispered.

“Yeah… Let’s go closer!” Hot Rod replied, stepping out. The sea green femmie quickly stopped him. 

“This time we’re doing things my way.”

—–

“Search every little pile of scrap you’ll find! We have to find them!” Ultra Magnus commanded as he and his Elites were helping removing the mess, trying to find something.

Meanwhile, Hot Rod and Moonracer were driving in shadows away from them. The red Speedster couldn’t help, but overhear what the High Protector was saying. Someone could’ve been in danger.

“Alright. We’re good.” When they found themselves on the safe distance, the sea green Speedster stepped out of the shadows and transformed. Hot Rod followed her lead.

“So. On the scale of one to ‘Moonracer, you’re a genious’ how was it?” She smiled triumphally, proudly putting her fists on her sides.

“Meh.” The red youngling shrugged, picking up a pointed metal scrap. It looked like a part of some kind of canon. “It was alright. I’d prefer being part of the situation though.”

“You can’t be the spotlight of everything, Rod. Sometimes it’s just better to keep the distance.”

“Yeah… Hey, Moony!” Moonracer turned to her friend, seeing him point a metal shard at the bigger wreck of the ship. “Do you think that those were some space pirates, or something?”

“Well. Maybe. Or maybe some transporter had a malfuncion.”

“Transporters are usually white and blue, this one’s too dark. I bet soon we’ll find it’s holo-flag, or maybe some rare space monster! Maybe it can become our mascot!”

“Pf! I wouldn’t get my hopes up-”

Without any warning, the rubble began moving. The younglings stepped back and screamed.

“What was that?!” Moonracer squeaked, hiding behind her amica.

“I was just joking with that monster thing!” Hot Rod was pointing his stick at the rubble, spoiler twitching. He was too caught off guard to reach for his bow.

“… wait.” The sea green femmie let go of the red Speedster and looked closer. “… I think someone just got stuck.”

“Oh…” Hot Rod went closer and eyed the rubble. After a second, he looked at his friend seriously. “I told you someone might need help.” Moonracer only straightened up.

“I’ll get the Rescue bots!” Hot Rod nodded. As soon as the sea green Speedster disappeared, the young mech began removing broken metal pieces out of the mess. He made sure that the construction wouldn’t fall down on whoever was under it.

“Hello?” He called out after a second. “Can you hear me? Don’t worry, help is on it’s wa-!“

Suddenly, a tall figure of a mech burst out of the rubble, making the youngling step back. It was a very familiar red and blue figure. Hot Rod widened his optics as soon as he recognized it.

"Optimus?!”

“Hot Rod…” The Prime looked down, absolutely baffled. He let out a painful groan and dropped on his knees as soon as he stood up. The red Speedster immediately grabbed him, trying to prevent him from falling.

“Optimus?!” Hot Rod was terrified. His mentor was involved in that huge explosion?!

Optimus’ battle mask was broken. One of it’s sides revealed the leader’s scratched lipplates and his optics’ light was weak. His frame took alot of damage as well, but despite all of his injuries, he managed to support himself with one of his arms, second wrapping around his student.

“It’s… alrig-t…” he replied weakly. “E-escaped befo-re…”

“Before what?!” When he felt like Optimus stabilized himself, the youngling pulled back and supported the bigger mech’s head with both of his servos. “Is this that important buisness you had to take care of?!”

“M-Mmmega…”

“What?”

“Mega-tron… he…” The Prime groaned, almost falling back. Hot Rod again managed to catch him in time.

“Decep-ticons… Star…” Optimus curled in pain. His servo started wandering on his chest. As soon as it reached his open spark chamber, he gasped.

Suddenly, Moonracer came back and with two Rescue bots. As quickly as she recognized the figure, she put her servos over her mouth. The bots quickly rushed to Optimus, carefully taking him away from Hot Rod. One of them, the medic, put him on a strecher and scanned his frame.

The Prime started murmuring under his battle mask. The red Speedster noticed that.

“Optimus…?” He leaned closer and grabbed his mentor’s servo.

“Matrix…” Optimus whispered weakly, squeezing his apprentice’s grip. Hot Rod looked at the older mech’s spark chamber. The place where the Matrix’ supposed to be was empty.

“Oh no…” The youngling felt like his frame started shaking. He looked around at the mess, trying to find the lost belonging. Hot Tod turned to Optimus, genly squeezing his servo with a serious expresson.

“Don’t worry, Optimus. I’ll bring it back.”

“Hot Rod…” When Hot Rod let go and ran away, the Prime reached his arm to stop him. But before he knew, he was helplessly falling into stasis.

—–

Hot Rod started looking around, searching for the lost relic. Moonracer was right behind him.

“Hot Rod, are you alright?” She put her servo on his shoulder. The red Speedster immediately turned around.

“Matrix is missing!”

“What?!” Moonracer widened her optics. “What do you mean it’s…”

“We don’t have time, we need to find it as soon as possible!” Hot Rod stated and returned to the rubble. Moonracer decided to help him.

“’Did Optimus tell you what even happened?”

“Something involving Megatron, Decepticons, and a star!”

“Decepticons?!THE Decepticons?! And… the assasin of Primes?!”

Hot Rod suddenly remembered a history lesson they had not that long ago. A rather unpleasant topic of the assasination of Sentinel Prime. The ex Decepticon leader’s reputation was mixed within the community- some were thankfull to him, some hated his guts, but if he still was after Primes, that must’ve been a very serious situation. It made Hot Rod twice as worried about his mentor’s wellbeing.

“What if Megatron took the Matrix?!” The red Speedster panicked. “What if he’ll make it some kind of a trophy, o-or try to sell it? Or try to open it???”

“Rod, calm down! Panicking will get you nowhere!”

“I’m not going to calm down until the Matrix is-”

“Found it!” Moonracer cheered, pushing away a big metal piece out of the way. Hot Rod immediately dropped what he was doing and ran to her. Both of their faces were lit up under the relic’s mystic blue light shining at them.

“You found it!” The red youngling laughed and hugged her tightly, rocking her. “YOU FOUND IT! MOONY, YOU’RE LITERALLY THE BEST!” The other youngling laughed too, holding tightly to his arm. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Okay, okay! See? It’s fine now!”

“Yeah…” Hot Rod let go of her, giving her a relieved smile. “Now we just have to remove this pile of scrap, and-”

Before any of the two could react, a sudden groundbridge opened under the Matrix.

“What the?!” Moonracer jumped, seeing the Matrix disappear in the portal.

“NO!” The youngling ran closer to the groundbridge and helplessly tried to grab the relic. Unfortunately, it closed before he had a chance to cross it.

“Where did that come from?!” 

“I… I don’t know.”

The younglings saw like the second portal appeared near them.

“There it is!” The red Speedster cheered, running towards it.

“Hot Rod, wait!”

“Make sure that OP’s fine before I return!” Before Moonracer could stop him, he crossed the groundbridge and disappeared.

Suddenly, the sea green femmie heard a transformation sound behind her. She turned around and gasped, seeing a frowning Bulkhead

“… Where’s the kid?” He asked.

“Um…”

That was a very good question.

—–  
The first thing Hot Rod saw was darkness. Then, lights in every color began shining at him.

The youngling arrived at some kind of city, but it looked really… bizarre. He couldn’t exacly tell what it was, but he could tell he wasn’t in Iacon anymore. After looking around, he spotted a gigantic glowing wheel in the middle of the road. The buildings around were weirdly constructed. Definetly not how they were looking in his home city at all. They were also awfully small, like they were made for Minicons.

Was this Luna 1?

After the second, the youngling gained his focus back.

“Matrix…” He whispered, looking around. He needed to find the Matrix and bring it back through the portal he came from- whiiiiiich wasn’t there anymore.

“Uh oh…” Hot Rod spotted a tiny car behind him. A very colourful car which had some kind of drink commercial on it’s sides.

Ah, so it was Luna 1 after all.

“Hi!” The youngling smiled and kneeled before the car. “Sorry for bothering at this state of the night, but I lost something. Can you help me?” But the vehicle wasn’t responding.

“Oh. It’s your recharge time… Sorry.” Hot Rod stood up and made a few steps back. “I already have enough problems with elders, I don’t want to cause any disturbance…”

Suddenly, he noticed something on the car’s glass. Hot Rod turned around and saw a small glowing object on one of the wheel’s lower pods. It was slowly moving towars the sky with it.

The youngling gasped, turning around.

“Matrix!” He cheered, running towards the wheel. “Thanks for help, guy! You’re the best!” He turned around for the last time to thank the resting vehcile.

The whole construction was huge, even for his standards. It was also slow. Very, very slow, so thankfully he had an advantage.

Without putting any more thoughts into it, Hot Rod started climbing all the way up, trying to reach the relic. With every passed pod, he was getting higher and higher. It was getting pretty dangerous, actually.

“Focus on the Matrix, Rod.” He encouraged himself. “Don’t look down and you’ll be fine.” One pede up, one grab higher. Second pede up, second grab higher. The youngling was repeating it, slowly climbing on the construction. He tried to his best to forget about the foolish danger he just put himself through.

One pede, one arm. Repeat.

One pede, one arm. Repeat.

One pede, one arm. Repeat.

He was repeating the cycle until he reached the pod with the Matrix on it’s top.

“Finally.” Hot Rod smiled thriumphally and grabbed the object. It was alright. The youngling sighed, relieved.

“Now Optimus can- WHOAH!"The red Speedster held the pod tightly, looking down. He found himself at the top of the wheel, slowly moving towards the second end.

Primus, was it high!

That was so reckless and stupid that he started considering if Moonracer was actually right about him.

"Down. Down. Please down. Please down.” Hot Rod was trying his very best to hold on, almost squeezing the Matrix in his grasp. He had no idea how fliers enjoyed the hights like that, they were fragging terrifying! For a grounder at least. The flier could actually move on the sky.

As he was slowly approaching his destination, he got a better look at the city he found himself in.

It was… actually pretty majestic. All around were some interestingly shaped buildings, the lights beautifully underlining it’s sizes. The night sky only added the charm to the place.

The good look of the city helped Hot Rod calm down and patiently wait. When the capsule got lower, the youngling ex vented in relief. Suddenly, the Matrix slipped out of his grasp and fell down.

“No!” The youngling gasped as he pointlessly tried to reach for it. He saw like the relic fell into the water under the wheel and disappeared in the dark blue waves. A faint blue light was visible for some time before it melted in the darkness.

“This is my punishment…” Hot Rod murmured. When the wheel was closer to the end, he jumped out of it right to the water, making a huge splat.

He fell right to the bottom, activating his lights. Everything was so dark. Even with his lights turned on, the youngling could barely see the surface. He looked around and saw a faint glowing light in the distance, slowly drifting away.

“Hmph!” Hot Rod tried to make a sound, but the water around him bubbled his vents, sending them to the above world. He tried running closer, but something seemed to block his movements, slowing him down. The young Autobot decided to tansform and drive closer. As it turned out, the waves he made were only pushing the Matrix aside, right into some green pile of… something. Hot Rod transformed again and kneeled before it, scanning it. Apparently, the relic got stuck in the pile. He just had to…

Get it out…

The red Speedster looked at the green stuff hesitantly. He had no idea they had something like that on Luna 1. Or anywhere at that matter…

It looked pretty disgusting, so that’s propably why he never seen it before.

Hot Rod huffed, turning his head in another direction and reaching his servo towards the Matrix. As soon as the green monstrosity brushed against his metal, a long shiver run his frame.

It was so squishy, and wet, and yuck!

“I can do this…” Hot Rod murmured and turned his head again, fastly stripping the green stuff off the relic. He kept murmuring to himself that he got this until the Matrix was in his grasp again. He quickly backed off and started getting the stuff out of his servos, loudly showing how disgusted he was.

The youngling signed and looked up. Something was casting a big shadow on his head.

It looked like a big ship of some sort.

Hot Rod smiled. Maybe someone from Cybertron pitpointed his location and they were searching for him! Or the Matrix, at least!

Either way, he was going home!

He just had to figure out how to get out of the water…

The red Autobot looked around and saw a wall in the distance which looked like he could use it for climbing up. It was however covered in the green stuff he was struggling with earlier.

The youngling groaned out of frustration.

—–

Hot Rod spend a whole cycle trying to get back to the surface, whining pathetically on the way. He got stuck a couple of times so he lost alot of time fighting with the green monstrosities thay were covering his path. After many difficulties and many humilating battles, Hot Rod hauled out of the water and crawled on a small bit of solid ground near him. He let out a loud whine, mixed with crying as he collapsed on it.

“LUNA 1, YOU SUCK! ONE MATRIX OUT OF FIVE!”

Hot Rod looked up and saw a small wall. He then glanced at the Matrix and hooked it up behind his back. A comforting heat was coming out of it. The youngling stood up and jumped on the wall, grabbing it’s edges. He managed to climb up and rest on the ground of it’s surface. He wanted nothing more than return home, take an oil bath, and then have the longest recharge in history of Cybertron.

Suddenly, he heard whispers. Many tiny voices garthered around him and started mumbling something.

“Hm?”

When Hot Rod opened his optics, he saw something standing before him. Something small and really ugly.

Some strange creatures were scanning him with their weird small optics. Their skin was metal-free, covered in some colourful clothing. They seemed startled when the youngling noticed them.

“Uh…” Suddenly, the creatures started screamin, which caused Hot Rod to join. They ran away as fast as they could when they saw the red mech standing up. Hot Rod had no idea what was going on, but he wasn’t willing to let them crawl all over himself.

He stepped on a road and saw a few vehicles approaching.

Finally, someone normal!

“Ma'am!” The red Autobot started waving his arms up and down, making the two cars stop. “I’m sorry for bothering, but I really could use some help! I need a ride to Iacon as soon as pos…” Without any warning, from the vehicles ran out a few of those metalless creatures.

“… M… ma'am?” Hot Rod gently nudged one of the cars. It wasn’t responding. He gasped, realizing what was going on…

“Energon eaters!” That would explain alot. Energon eaters were organic life forms which drained energy out of Cybertronians.

Now he knew he had to escape. It they’d get their limbs on the Matrix…

The youngling made sure that the relic wouldn’t fall from his back and transformed, driving in another direction.

“Please. Please. Please. Buuulk!” Hot Rod tried to contact Bulkhead, but the only response he got was a loud sound of static. “Of all the times you had to pick up!!!”

An incoming ammount of cars caaught him off guard. The youngling tried to avoid them, setting some of them off the road. He didn’t even notice that he was driving in the wrong direction. Those cars appeared to be controlled by the organics.

Energon eaters AND psychics? Was this some kind of fictional play?

Hot Rod found himself in the heart of the tiny city full of the organic creatures. Thankfully, none of them seemed to want to attack him. Good. He stopped at something that looked like a weird pole in the middle of a street. Or a sculpcture of pole, he couldn’t tell. He transformed and tapped his comn link again, squeezing the Matrix behind his parted spoiler.

“Bulk! Moony! Trion! Optimus! Anyone!” He couldn’t reach anyone.

“Please…” Hot Rod squeezed his optics tightly, hanging his head.

“I don’t want to be alone in here…”

Suddenly, he heard a sound of engine in the distance. The youngling looked up and saw a few flashing lights coming towards him.

“Elites…?” Hot Rod whispered. He smiled after a second and started waving his arm in the air.

“I’m over here! I’m-” Before he had a chance to react, an intense series of bullets started hitting his frame. He stepped back and made a startled yelp, trying to cover himself with his arms.

When they were close enough, Hot Rod noticed that those were the military vehicles. He spotted a few small figures inside of them as well as on some’s roofs. His faceplates shifted to pure horror.

The organics were making those poor people attack him!

That was it.

The young Autobots reached for his bow and activated it. With one quick move, he fired one of his arrows which exploded on the middle of the road, making a big red smoke screen around. The vehicles stopped.

“And stay there!” As soon he could, he transformed again and stepped on the gas, literal flames coming out of his tail pipes. The Speedster didn’t care where he was going, or how many controlled people were on his way. He was getting out, and that was a final!

“Evacuate the civillains! Make sure no one gets in the way of firepower!” One of the ‘energon eatres’ spoke through the car’s radio. The vehicles split up, following Hot Rod’s steps.

—–

The red Autobots’s engine was getting tired, so he had to make a quick stop. He transformed and pulled out his bow, making sure that he’d be prepared for the next attack. The place was full of the ‘energon eaters’. They started running around the place, screaming. Hot Rod tried his best to not smash any of them when they ran towards him.

“Don’t touch me!” He rose his weapon towards them, trying to scare them away. It seemed to work as they all scattered, hiding in tiny buildings. Some of them ran away from the street, and some were too shocked to do anything. The Matrix behind his back started shining a bit brighter. The red Speedster had no idea what that meant, but he knew that Optimus needed it.

He spotted some of the creatures close to something that appeared to be a small fountain in the middle of the place. The bigger and the smaller ‘energon eaters.’ Without thinking much, he rose his bow to them and frowned dangerously, trying to make them run too.

But then, something unexpected happened.

The bigger organic kneeled and hugged the tinier one closer to it’s chest. Hot Rod could sense their shaking and see the rising fear in their optics as they looked at him like they were begging him for mercy.

The Autobot slightly widened his optics. That gesture reminded him of a carekater, trying to protect their sparkling from danger…

HE was a danger to THEM???…

They attacked him first, didn’t they? He was just protecting himself! He had to! He…

Hot Rod noticed that the smaller organic peeked at him, tugging closer to apparently it’s caretaker, big brown optics filled with water.

The youngling’s gaze softened drastically.

They weren’t attacking him. They were just trying to protect themselves. Every one of them…

Hot Rod was staring at them for a few more seconds, before lowering his weapon. The bigger ‘energon eater’ seemed to notice that. Hot Rod’s faceplates completely dropped their defensive gaze and shifted to something he truly was.

A lost, scared child.

“I’m… Sorry…” He murmured, loud enough for them to hear.

Suddenly, something catched Hot Rod’s pede, making him fall with a startled shout, and drop his bow. He felt like the Matrix slipped out of his back and rolled away from him.

“Hold it down!” He heard small footsteps approaching all around him. Two creatures managed to run away, leaving Hot Rod with the military forces. The youngling tried to rise up, but the rest of his limbs were caugh by the ropes as well. Some of the organics stepped out of the lifeless vehicles and raised their guns at the young Speedster. They started arguing what should they do with him.

“Call a scientist!”

“A scientist? Not a mechanic?!”

“Better do both!”

“Of all the wonders of this world, I’ve never seen anything like that!”

“It’s huge!”

Hot Rod looked up and saw the Matrix laying a few steps away from him. The ‘energon eaters’ were investigating it, which absolutely terrified him. Were they going to suck all of the energy out of it?!

“Worry who to call after we get it out of the city! This thing can attack at any- HEY!” Suddenly, Hot Rod rose from the ground and tried to cut his ropes.

“Hold it down!” One of the soliders shouted. The vehicles started spinning around the youngling, trying to tie him up. The red Autobot was about to fall again, when he remembered about a cool trick he learned not that long ago.

“More ropes!”

Without any warning, Hot Rod’s frame literally started burning. The flames started melting his ropes.

“Take cover!” Another ‘energon eaters’ shouted.

When the red Speedster managed to escape his trap, he ran to the Matrix and grabbed it, making sure that it won’t get caught in the fire. As quickly as he could, he grabbed his bow and aimed at his attackers, putting out his flames. He’d be so dizzy after that…

The soliders stepped back, still aiming at him.

“Don’t worry, Matrix…” Hot Rod whispered, looking down at the relic. “I will protect you.” Without any thinking, he pulled it closer, right before his spark chamber. Before he had a chance to react, something started happening.

After a brief second, the Matrix started glowing brightly, blinding everyone around. All of the lifeless vehicles around started going crazy.

“What’s happening?!” One of them asked.

“Requesting immediate back up!” The other spoke through the radio. The creatures seemed to back off slightly, looking as the vehicles went out of control.

“Huh?” Hot Rod looked at the relic again. He was holding it by one of it’s golden handles. Something within the Matrix changed. It’s heat was getting more intense, but the youngling didn’t seem affected.

In fact, he was beggining to actually like it.

Suddenly, the world around him seemed to slow down as he stared at it, deeply focused. He felt hypnotized by whatever was inside. Hot Rod sweared he heard a voice coming out of it. His instinct was telling him that he should bring the Matrix closer. And so he did.

The youngling grabbed the Matrix’ second handler and slowly pushed it open. After a second, he found himself surrounded by a powerful ball of mystic energy that was swilrling around, messing with the organics’ war machines.

Hot Rod felt something within his spark awakening. Something new. Something powerful. His energy levels were jumping out of scale, rewriting his whole system to receive everything what the Matrix was giving him. The youngling’s whole life was flashing before him like a film. Every sad, every happy, every angry memory was there, mixing with the relic.

In the end, there was a small burst of energy which put out all of the ‘energon eater’’s vehicles out of action. When it disappeared, Hot Rod fell on the ground, immediately falling into stassis.

“… what are you waiting for?!” The captain finally spoke.. “Call a helicopter and get this thing out of here!”

Suddenly, everyone heard a sound of an incoming car and a very weird twisted noise.

Before they knew, something came from behind, landing in front of the fallen youngling.

“There’s more of them!” Another solider yelled. They rose their weapon only to lower them immediately when they saw what they were facing.

A gigantic green robot turned to them, facing them with a warning expression. It was larger than the one they caught. Much larger, and definetly more muscular. The robot was standing in a protective manner before Hot Rod.

“Hold your fire!” The captain spoke, raising his arm. He was not risking the life of civilians to take him down.

“HOT ROD!!!” Suddenly, Moonracer joined and ran to her amica. She rose him from the ground and gently shook him.

“Hot Rod!!!” She tried to get his attention, but he wasn’t responding. “Hot Rod, please open your optics! Hot Rod!”

Hot Rod was hearing only a faint noise before he slowly drifted to stasis, trying to process everything that happened.

At least he wasn’t alone anymore…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact. The title is not quotation of Hot Rod's words.  
IT'S ME, SWEARING THAT AFTER THIS IS ALL OVER, NOTHING BAD WILL EVER HAPPEN TO MY SUNSHINE SON AGAIN!
> 
> Side note: I'm super excited for finally getting into the main story! I literally couldn't wait to release this chapter on the weekend, so I'm giving ya'll it now! I'm happy for getting this far and I hope I can only continue making your time worth!
> 
> Thanks for reading and hope every one of you have a good day! (^w^)


	13. Welcome on Earth

Hot Rod opened his optics with a loud groan. He immediately closed them as soon as the bright light flashed him from the above. He turned to his side, shielding himself and waiting for his vision to clear. After it did, the red Speedster sat down, feeling the solid surface of the ground. He rose up and saw a big, empty room. He was laying on some kind of berth made from a different material than metal. The one he had trouble recognizing.

The mechling sat up, rubbing his optics. All of the memories started flowing back to him. Optimus. Energon eaters. The Matrix. Was this all just a vision? It sure felt like one. Hot Rod looked around and saw a shadow moving on the ground from a different room. He wasn’t alone.

The red Speedster stood up and slowly waddled towards it, studyinng his surroundings. The red Speedster entered another room, hearing two increasing voices. Despite still being a bit dizzy, Hot Rod followed the sound.

\-----

“I don’t know what kind of military program are you running which allows hurting innocents, and at this point I don’t think that I want to know! You have no rights to keep him in here!” As Hot Rod walked closer, he saw Bulkhead and Moonracer turned around to him. His watcher seemed to be talking with someone.

“With all due respect, mr…” His speeker stuttered.

“Bulkhead.” The green Autobot replied in a harsh tone.

“But your friend caused a gigantic traffic at Victoria Embankment and appeared to be a severe danger to London’s citizens. He was also in possesion of a weapon, and seemed to show no hesitations in using it.”

“Um…” Everyone turned around and saw Hot Rod standing behind them. The youngling couldn’t help, but grab his arms tightly.

“Rod!” Moonracer cheered and ran to her friend, almost tackling him with a hug. Hot Rod was confused, but decided to slightly press to the touch.

“Are you okay?” She pulled back and looked at him with worried optics.

“Yeah!” Hot Rod smiled brightly. “You wouldn’t believe what crazy vision I had! There was a gigantic explosion in the middle of the hills, and we went to investigate it! But as soon as I knew it, I ended up on some strange planet with giant wheels, funny buildings, and lots of energon eaters arou-” After a second, he glanced at Bulkhead which turned around and revealed the individual he was speaking to. On a flying platform next to the green Autobot was standing a tiny creature in strange green clothes around it’s body and it’s head. It appeared to be an organic life form.

“...” After a brief second of shock, the youngling shouted, trying to find his bow. Moonracer quickly stopped him.

“Rod, it’s okay!”

“No, you don’t understand! It’s an energon eater!”

“Energon eater?” The ‘energon eater’ gave Hot Rod a questioning look.

“Yes! There are like millions of them! They sucked all life from Cybertronians and took over their frames! I saw the whole thing!”

“Hot Rod…” The green Autobot spoke in a (somehow still) calm voice. The youngling turned his head towards him.

“The number of energon eaters in the universe is so low that they’re almost extinct. And I can tell they don’t appear in this part of the galaxy very often.”

“W-wait. ‘This part of the galaxy’...?”

Bulkhead sighed and gestured his servo at the creature.

“This is a human.”

“… A what?” Hot Rod rose an optical ridge, walking closer to the platform.

“A human.” The organic replied. “Captain Oliver Smith to be more precise, a resident of planet Earth.”

The youngling narrowed his optics, scanning the form of this captain Smith. His voice was so familiar. He couldn’t tell why, but... The red Speedster didn’t trust him one bit. And then, he remembered something which made him stiffen.

“Is something wrong?” The captain asked, slightly tilting his head.

“You... you attacked me...” Hot Rod stepped back, drawing closer to his amica. His expression grew fearful as the sudden realization hit him. “You, and... and other humans. This vision, it... it was all true! It all happened! The ship, a-and the wheel, and...”

“Hot Rod...” Moonracer became concerned.

“Optimus...” Out of sudden rush of emotions, the red Autobot turned to the sea green Speedster with almost tearful optics. “Opimus, he’s... He was there! He’s still... He’s not, is he??? He’s still alive, right?!”

“He’ll live.” Bulkhead suddenly stated. “I saw how the Rescue Bots were treating him. Besides, he’s a strong bot.” Hot Rod made no reaction for some time, but then let out a huge relieved huff. Moonracer couldn’t help, but soften her gaze and put her servo on her amica’s shoulder. The red youngling dropped his spoiler, pressing his own servo and helm to the comforting touch, closing his optics tightly. The retired engineer fell silent afterwards. Captain Oliver couldn’t help, but observe their reactions. Those machines were truly something else.

“I take it that ‘Optimus’ is someone important to this individual.”

“... Yes.” Bulkhead responded after a second, ex venting, and turning around. “Our arrival on Earth was an accident. We don’t want any problems with neither Earth, nor your species. All we want is to return to our own world.”

“What do you expect from us then?”

“I’d like to speak with your superiors. I’m going to need some informations, resources, and time. I’ll send an emergency signal to Cybertron, the closest patrol should take us back. If no more accidents wil occur like this one, you’ll never see us ever again.”

“First, I need to know what kind of resources do you need.”

“All I’m asking for is a signal boost, and a few coordinates.” Smith hummed, crossing his arms.

“I need to consult this with others. I’ll be right back.” And with that, he left. Hot Rod looked up at Bulkhead and smiled softly.

“Thanks, Bulk.“ The green Autobot surpressed an angered huff. The younglings could tell that he wasn’t enjoying his stay on a different planet at all. The red Speedster’s smile dropped as quickly as it appeared on his faceplates. He looked down in shame. Moonracer did the same.

“We’re sorry...” The sea green femmie whispered.

“No, I’m sorry.” Hot Rod stepped forward, letting his amica’s servo drop out of his shoulder. “It was my idea. All of this. “

“We’ll talk about this once we get home.” Bulkhead replied, turning around. His frown was small, but the red Speedster still felt the crushing guilt. “I told you so many times that crossing unknown groundbridges is very dangerous. Of all the things you were capable of, I trusted that you knew at least that.”

“Bulk, I was there!” Moonracer stepped forward as well, trying to defend her friend. “He was just trying to help!”

“How?”

“Optimus lost the Matrix, and Hot Rod...” Both young Autobots immediately froze. The retired engineer widened his optics.

“What?”

“B-but it’s okay! Hot Rod has it! Right, Rod?” The femmie smiled nervously and bumped her friend’s arm. The red Speedster was just blandly staring on the ground. “Rod...?”

“I…” The mechling turned his head around and looked on his back. He became absolutely terrified as soon as he realized that the relic wasn’t there. The sea green femmie’s concern only grew further. Soon, the red Autobot looked back at his watcher with widened optics. “I... I don’t have it anymore... I-it was here! I swear-!”

“Optimus lost the Matrix?!” Bulkhead shouted. Both youngling could sense his panicked tone. “And it’s in here?!”

“It fell into one of the portals! We had to do something!”

“Where did you see it the last time?!”

“I... I don’t remember! I don’t remember anything at all except a few brief moments!”

“It must be somewhere around, right?” Moonracer stated. “Bulkhead, y-you used to work with groundbridges, maybe you can track it!”

“I could, if I had the right tools and knew where the signal came from! Engineers and City Speakers are two different things!”

Hot Rod grew awfully quiet, feeling like the most useless bot in existence. He lost the Matrix, disappointed everyone, and got into trouble yet again. But this time, his friend and watcher got dragged in as well.

The youngling didn’t understand. He had the relic with him, didn’t he? Did he drop it somewhere? He tried searching his memory banks, trying to recall events from the night before. The last time he saw it was when he was in that place with a fountain. The humans tried to capture him, and then...

As soon as Hot Rod remembered, he gasped, looking at his spark chamber.

“M-maybe the city isn’t this big! Maybe we still can look for it!”

“Primus, for what sins...” The green Autobot let out a tired, shaky vent. “Not only do we need to find our way home now, but also the Matrix, hoping that the humans didn’t claim it by-”

“Guys?” Hot Rod suddenly interrupted.

They both turned to him with questionable looks. Without any warning, the red Speedster opened his spark chamber. At once, a powerful blue light shined out of it before revealing a golden relic, buried in his spark. Moonracer gasped, while Bulkhead’s jaw dropped. Hot Rod was just as speechless.

“Is this…?” The sea green youngling looked closer to make sure if she saw right.

“I… I think so.” The red Speedster replied, looking at her.

“Kid...” The retired engineer kneeled before him and studied the relic. To his surprise, it appeared to be just the right fit for Hot Rod. “It’s... it’s impossible.”

“Yeah...” The mechling nodded.

“Does that mean that you’re… a Prime now?” Moonracer tilted her head.

“I… I don’t know… I feel a bit weird, but... I don’t feel like I’m the chosen one. M-maybe something changed about me, like, am I bigger?” The youngling straightened up, put his arms on his waist and proudly puffed out his chest.

“... No.” Bulkhead shook his helm.

“Oh... did my color change then? Maybe I have golden optics, or something?” Hot Rod started spinning around, trying to see if there were some changes on his body. “Do I look more... Primey?”

“How do ‘more Primey’ look?” The sea green femmie asked, grimancing a bit.

“I dunno. More flashy, noble maybe? Maybe my alt is a truck now, like OP’s?”

“I’m pretty sure you haven’t changed a bit.” Moonracer smiled slightly, rubbing her back neck plating.

“So I guess I’m not a Prime.” The red Autobot shrugged.

“Can you take it off?” Bulkhead asked.

“I should...” Hot Rod looked at the Matrix and grabbed it by it’s two holders, pushing it away from his chest. He was surprised when it didn’t come off. “That’s funny...”

"What’s the matter?” Moonracer noticed her friend struggling.

“I think it’s stuc… OUCH!” Suddenly, the youngling felt like something stang him in the digit. He stepped back, alarming the others.“It bit me!”

“What?!”

“Seriously, it just did!”

“Alright, that’s it!” Bulkhead frowned and reached his servo towards the Matrix. “We’re getting this thing out of your system!”

“WAIT, BULK, NO!” Hot Rod warned his watcher too late. The green mech was thrown back by a powerful shock of energy that stroke him and he hit the metal wall with a powerful thud.

The younglings stared in awe.

“What WAS that?!” Moonracer asked, looking at her friend.

“I think Matrix doesn’t want to be touched...” The red Speedster replied, looking down.

“You think so?” Bulkhead snarked, getting up from the ground and shaking his head.

“Sorry...”

“Was it doing that before?” The sea green Speedster made a wise choise of stepping back.

“No! That’s weird! Me and humans had no problem touching it earlier!”

Moonracer grabbed her chin and thought for a moment.

“Did Optimus ever let you touch it while he was holding it?”

“No... actually, now that I think about it, I asked him one time if I could see the Matrix while studying and he quickly said ‘no’. And... according to our studies, it’s the only relic that can actually protect itself.”

“Maybe the Matrix needs a host to do that... And as long as it’s guarded by you, it’s safe!”

“But... I’m not a Prime, am I? I thought only Primes could...”

Suddenly, Bulkhead heard growing footspets. He turned around and noticed a long shadow on the wall approaching. The watcher turned to the kids and whispered:

“Not a single word about the Matrix to humans.”

“But-”

“Not a single word. Got it?” Hot Rod and Moonracer exchanged looks before looking back at the green Autobot and nodding. Captain Smith returned on his platform. He looked around and saw that one of the walls had a burned bump on it.

“What happened to the wall?” The captain asked, glancing at the group of Cybertronians.

“What wall?” Bulkhead replied quickly. Too quickly.

“This wall. It wasn’t burned before I left.”

“Ah, that! It was-”

“I hit it by an accident!” Hot Rod stepped forward, lying. “Flames are very tricky when you’re not paying your full attention! I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again!”

“Uh... huh...” Oliver rose his eyebrow, looking weirdly at the group. “Anyway, your tems are being looked through as we speak. But before we move with the topic, we’re going to have a few questions on our own.”

“That depends what questions do you want me to answer.” The green mech replied, crossing his arms.

“My superiors will be the ones preparing them. We need to be one hundread percent sure that we can trust you before we give you access to our comunication systems.”

“Our race is peaceful, but I suppose it’s reasonable. When can we start?”

“First, someone from our world is going to be assigned to make sure that you won’t cause any mayhems. Someone you will have to answer to and listen when they’d tell you to stop.”

“How long are you planning on keeping us in here?”

“Again, I’m not the who’s... hold on." After a second, Smith pulled out a small square device and tapped it's screen. He brought it to his ear and turned around.

“Captain Smith, what is... Another one?! Alright, I’ll be there!” After he hang up, he looked at the Autobots, frowning. “You didn’t say anything about another robot!”

“Another what?” Bulkhead rose his optical ridge. Smith tapped his phone’s screen and on the projector behind him appeared a blurry picture of a big grey Cybertronian.

“Is this one of your Autobot friends?”

Moonracer and Hot Rod nervously looked at the mech’s arm. Despite the picture’s quality, they could easily recognize a visible Decepticon insignia on it.

“No…” The green femmie shook her head. The captain grew confused.

Bulkhead was just staring with slightly narrowed optics. “It can’t be…”

“Do you recognize that individual?”

“Yes, but… that can’t be right, he’s..."

“Bulk?” Hot Rod’s parted spoiler dropped.

“I may be developing a brainrust, but I swear on my spark that this mech looks just like…” After a second, the retired engineer’s optics widened. “Megatron.”

The younglings gasped quietly.

“Who?” Smith crossed his arms with a grimance.

“Megatron. Leader of the Decepticons.”

“Hot Rod…” Moonracer whispered. “Didn’t Optimus say that Megatron was the one who…” Hot Rod grabbed his sparkchamber, squeezing it tightly.

“He’s after the Matrix…”

“He can’t really touch you, so he shouldn’t be a danger to you… right?”

“Yeah, but… humans are not as protected.”

“What are we going to do then?”

Hot Rod suddenly looked at his friend with determined optics.

“What would Optimus do if someone would be in danger?”

“Judging by your expression, he’s someone I wouldn’t like my men to face, is he?”

“That really depends.”

“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t seen him in almost five million years, he’s a living history at this point. He might be just as confused as we are. I would suggest that you’ll take me to him, and I’ll try to explain the whole situatio-”

“Wait…” Captain Smith suddenly rose his hand and looked around. “Where are the other ones?”

The green Autobot turned around, seeing that Hot Rod and Moonracer disappeared.

“Oh no…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas ya'll! Have this (propably late) gift! Happy 2020 and much much more!
> 
> Also, brace yourselves, because the next chapter is going to be WILD!


	14. Mighty Megatron part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hot Rod and Moonracer search for Megatron. Things get complicated

Hot Rod and Moonracer were walking around the human city they arrived at. Strangely enough, all locals seemed to be missing. They stopped at some lone street to discuss their next steps.

“Why do I always get dragged into your plans?” The sea green femmie huffed regretfully.

“Because I need you.” Hot Rod responded, crossing his arms. “Someone has to help me drag Megatron’s unconcious frame after I’m done with him.”

“Wow, you sound like you had no idea who we’re talking about. He’s called ‘the Assasin of Primes’ for a reason you know.”

“Yeah, but we have Matrix on our side! One touch and Megatron is Mega-gone!” Hot Rod smirked, tapping his servo against his chest.The young femmie tried to hide her amusement in her huff. Suddenly, something hit her.

“Wait… Did Smith say where Megatron was?”

“… OH MY PRIMUS!” Hot Rod squeezed the sides of his head, realizing his horrible mistake. The sea green femmie slapped her servo against her helm.

“Okay, let’s calm down. We need to find out where he is right now.”

“How?”

Suddenly, both younglings heard a faint voice coming from one of the buildings. They turned around and saw a small booth with something that seemed like a collection of ‘London’ themed gadgets. The two of them went closer, ducking and looking inside. On the booth’s table was laying a tiny square device which was showing a broatcast of some sort. A long haired human with a picture of a blurry mech on the edge of the screen was sharing the news.

‘-appeared at 9 pm near the Museum of Cardiff and was seen escaping on the West. Some witnesses reported that the strange battle machines arrived at London, near the Piccadilly Circuis, as well. The objects appear to be armed. All citizens living near those areas are advised to not leave their houses until the further notice.’

“Look, it’s you!” The sea green femmie pointed out as a picture of her friend getting captured appeared. Hot Rod cringed.

“Not the best way to introduce myself to a whole world of aliens...”

“I guess we’re in London then. That means Megatron is in Cardiff.”

“Okay, but... what’s Cardiff?”

“I don’t know. I wish I had some informations about this region.”

“Hey,how about that?” Hot Rod grabbed one of the papers hanging from the booth and showed it to his amica. It appeared to be a map.

“Perfect!” Moonracer cheered and took it. After scanning it, she tapped her helm and a holographic replica of the map appeared in front of them. The sea green femmie hummed thoughtfully.

“Cardiff is a capital of region Wales. We’re in London, the capital of England. We’ll have to drive there and it’s going to be a pretty long ride. Are we sure we don’t want to wait for Bulkhead?” Moonracer asked, hiding her map.

“He’s busy, you saw. Don’t worry, we got this!” Hot Rod seemed confident as ever. Moonracer ex vented.

“Okay then.”

The youngling transformed and the sea green Speedster chose the direction. Hot Rod followed her, and soon, they were on their way to the city Cardiff.

\-----

“Annnnd we’ve reached our destination!” The sea green femmie said, stopping at the parking in a whole different city. Hot Rod was right behind her. Both of the younglings transformed and streched out. At least a couple of cycles passed ever since they left London. 

“Lovely place.” The red youngling commented.

“We can have a field trip later. Any ideas where Megatron could be?”

“Propably somewhere dark. You know, for plotting and stuff.”

“I think we should go to this Museum of Cardiff and check if he left any clues.”

“I say we should start thinking like him, you know, like in detective novels. Find out what’s his next goal.”

“Oh, so now you’re interested in detective novels.” Moonracer gave her friend a judgmental look.

“Look, all I say is that we should look around.”

“The problem is, what exacly do we know about Megatron?”

“Well,” Hot Rod started counting on his digits. “he’s big, evil, killed a Prime, leads the Decepticons, propably eats sparklings for breakfast, and his aft is about to get kicked.”

“Yeah. Outside of our basic knowledge we have no idea what he wants. That’s why we should go look for the clues, which happened to be at the museum.”

“Which happened to be in the centre of human city. I don’t know about you, but I I don’t feel like getting captured again. Besides, what if it’s a trap and Megatron wants us to go there so he can ambush us?”

“And what if he wants us to think that way and get us as far as possible?”

The two paused for a second, before letting out a groan.

“Now he’s messing with our minds!”

“I think the best way to solve this problem is to simply split up.” Hot Rod smirked.

“Splitting up in an unknown city without caretakers? Moony, I don’t recognize you.”

“I know, right? You’re an amazing influence on me. Nevermind, let’s split up and search multiple areas at the same time. If one of us finds Megatron first,-” Moonracer started.

“-or be in any kind of danger,-” He continued.

“should contact another immediately.” She finished.

“Right! Let’s do that!”

Hot Rod was about to leave when Moonracer caught his arm, making him turn around. After a second, she pulled her friend into a hug, catching him off guard.

“For good luck...” She said. “And for a reminder that you’re not alone in this.”

Hot Rod’s startled expression softened and he hugger her back.

“Thanks... And right back at ya.”

They pulled back after a second and nodded to each other.

“Remember to call.” The red Speedster smiled.

“I will.” The sea green femmie smiled back. “And you too.”

The younglins transformed and took the two opposite sides of the road. 

\-----

“What has this world come to for me to receive such cases?” The police officer sighed, standing in front of the Museum of Cardiff. Next to the building was a giant hole shaped like a gigantic body. The police already was there, controlling the situation. “Alright, one more time. A giant robot fell from the sky and crashed the road before the museum. You were concerned by the noise and walked out of the building to see it. When the robot spotted you, it picked up your car and started making noises.”

“Yes...” The night guard replied, tangling his fingers together. “It said ‘Bah Weep Granah Weep Nini Bong!’ and I called the police.”

“I see. Have you seen where it went?”

“No. Right after that I returned inside, praying that it wouldn’t blow up the entire building. The next thing I heard were gigantic footsteps getting away.”

”I see... Alright, thank you for your time, sir. There is nothing to worry about anymore.”

“I truly hope this is not going to turn like all those sci fi movies about robots taking over the world.”

“Yes, we all do.” After he finished his investigations, he requested his fellow police officers to drive the man back to his home so they could look around the place.

Just then, Moonracer arrived at the scene and hid. It would be rather hard to pass all of those humans around, especially in her robot form. She had to think carefully.

Suddenly, her Energon readings catched some rations nearby. Thankfully away enough from the police officers. She backed off and drove around the place. After some time, she spotted some object in the distance. The sea green femmie decided to transform back and walk closer. She picked it up and studied it. It looked like a small piece of Cybertron’s metal. Moonracer looked around and saw a metal scrap trail leading away to some park.

“I found the rest of the ship!” She comned her amica, carefully following the path.

—–

“I’ll be there in a minute!” Hot Rod said, walking around an old junkyard he found on the way. He was about to head back to the exit, when suddenly, he heard a quick movement within the disposed metal. The youngling’s defence protocols hit their highest state. He began slowly walking in circles, scanning the location cauciously. After some time, his audials caught a small rustling sound behind him. Hot Rod squeaked and rose his bow up, aiming at it. Thankfully there was no one to be seen.

“I- Is anyone in here?” He asked, looking around. “This is a real bow and I can use it! I-I’m not going down without a fight! You hear that, Megatron?!” He tried to sound threatning, but he was terrified. He didn’t want to end up like neither Optimus, nor Sentinel. “I’ll let you know that I’m carrying the most powerful weapon galaxy has ever seen, and… I can use it to wipe you out!” He shouldn’t have said that. He really shouldn’t have said that.

“I- I’m not scared of any of your Depection tricks! You hear that?! Or are you just too cowardly to respond-”

“Meow.”

“AAAH!!!” Hot Rod shrieked and turned around, aiming his bow down. A small creature appeared behind him. It had pointed ears, shining eyed and a swinging tail. It seemed to be peaceful.

“Oh…” The red Speedster lowered his weapon. “I... I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you sir... or ma’am.”

The creature was just looking at him with curious eyes, waving it’s long tail. It somewhat resembled a beastformer. so the youngling took it by one.

“I suppose you would’t know where to find a certain criminal?”

“Meow.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Hot Rod ex vented and relaxed. “I guess he’s not here after all. Good, because I would beat his ugly faceplates for everything he di-”

Suddenly, his audials picked the sound of an incoming jet. Without any warning, something big fell on the ground, making the red Speedster yelp and hide behind one of the walls with old cars in it. Hot Rod looked out from his hiding spot only to quickly return, gasping.

A giant Seeker jet fell from the sky and transformed, revealing a gigantic form of a Cybertronian. The figure let out a vent, and a thick steam surrounded them. Only the red light of their optics and biolights were visible, giving them a theatening aesthetic. After the steam vanished, Hot Rod spotted a familiar Decepticon insignia on the person’s arm.

Megatron...

“Scrap...”

\-----

Moonracer’s path took her to some dark abandoned magazine at the border of the city. Before entering, she made sure that no humans were around. Who knew if she’d meet a Decepticon, or even worse. The sea green femmie took a big metal bar laying nearby, turned on her lights and cautiously stepped inside.

The building seemed abandoned, there were no containers, nor capsules around. Just an empty darkness and... and absolute mess. Moonracer held her bar tighty with both servos and wandered over the place, following her trail. After some time, she noticed that on the floor was laying the rest of the pile. The youngling slowly walked closer, studying it. It appeared to be a part of some mechanism, pretty ancient at that. The control centre, she believed. Suddenly, she noticed something that stood up immensely from the rest of the scrap. Moonracer decided to lower her weapon and pick it up. It was a metal quill of some sort. It’s purple paint was worn off, but it was still sharp enough for whatever use what’s for.

Moonracer was so focused on her study that she didn’t even notice that someone sneaked to the magazine and stood behind her.

“That’s not yours.” A chilling voice spoke from behind. The sea green Autobot turned around, gasping loudly. A tall Seeker femmie was standing behind her, grimancing dangerously.

\-----

“Moony!” Hot Rod whispered through him comn link. Unfortunately, there was nothing but static. “Moony, I found him! Please respond as quickly as possible!”

Megatron started walking around the junkyard, scanning the cars around. Hot Rod was squeezing his bow in his servos, praying that the Decepticon wouldn’t find him by an accident. But thankfully, he didn’t seem interested in his part of the location.

After some time, Megatron stopped and kneeled. He picked up one of the cars laying around and threw it away, grabbing some container. Hot Rod looked back and saw how the rebel stared at it for a second before drinking it, and wiping his faceplates afterwards. He propably found some energy source, because his biolights started flickering faintly.

He was weakened then. Propably after a fight.

As the moonlight flashed his features, Hot Rod could see more of his details. Megatron was a very tall mech, just as tall as Optimus. His dark grey frame scratched and his side burnt. Absolutely a fight.

The youngling looked down, studying the lower part of the Assasin of Primes. Suddenly, he noticed something strange on his pedes.

“Wheels?” Hot Rod whispered, narrowing his optics. “That’s weird. Why would a flier need-”

Without any warning, the mech turned around, giving Hot Rod chills. The youngling hid back, trying to prevent his spoiler from shaking. Megatron stared in his direction before shaking his headd and jumping on one of the walls. He kneeled before one of the cars and started searching it’s opened inside. Hopefully he didn’t see him. The red Speedster calmed himself down.

“I can do this...” He told himself, closing his optics. “I can do this... I can do this... I can do this...” He prepared his bow and turned around, aiming at the escapee.

“FREEZE!”

Suddenly, Megatron yelped and lost his balance. He fell off the wall, crashing on a pile of scrap. Hot Rod did not expect this kind of reaction.

The Decepticon rose from the ground, shaking off the rusted scrap and grabbing his head with a painful groan. He looked up and saw the young Autobot with lowered bow and confused expression looking at him.

“A youngling?” Megatron couldn’t help, but raise an optical ridge. He placed his servo on his knee, slowly standing up.

“M… Megatron of Kaon…?” Hot Rod babbled out, distrusting his own optics. Did Assasin of Primes just fell off a wall like a clumsy sparkling?

“Uh… Yes?” The Decepticon replied, getting junk out of his dents, optics never leaving the Autobot. “What are you doing in here?”

“I… I should be asking you the same thing!”

“Oh, I’m just looking for some energy!” Megatron smiled and straightened up, throwing the empty container behind him. “There are no Energon mines around, so I wandered around a bit and found this place! Don’t worry, those machines aren’t alive.”

“I... I figured. N-no, I mean, what are you doing on this planet?!”

“Oh, that! Well, I guess I’m living here now!” The rebel shrugged. “I can’t exacly return to Cybertron, so I’m staying here! I just need to find some nice place to live. Don’t get me wrong, this dollhouse city is quite gorgeous,”

“Doolhouse city?”

“but the number of rodents is quite concerning to me.”

“They’re called humans.” Hot Rod frowned. “And it’s their planet.”

“Really?” Suddenly, Megatron ex vented in relief, chuckling which completely caught Hot Rod off guard. “I thought they were Energon eaters! You just spared me alot of time and energy, child!”

The youngling couldn’t help, but be amazed how oblivious this mech appeared to be.

“And you?” The rebel smiled, gesturing his servo at him. “What are you doing on this planet?”

That was his cue. Hot Rod rose his bow and aimed at him, frowning as dangerously as he could.

“Megatron of Kaon, you are under arrest!”

Suddenly, the Decepticon’s smile dropped, expression growing somewhat surprised, confused even.

“I’m... what?”

“You’re under arrest! I’m taking you in!"

“... Are you a police cadet or something?” Megatron just put his servos on his waist and tilted his head, giving Hot Rod a questioning look.

“Well no, but- That’s completely irrelevant!”

“Then how are you going to capture me without any power cuffs?”

The youngling paused, and suddenly all of his confidence disappeared.

“W-well, I… I’m gonna fight you so hard you’re gonna hit the stasis!”

“Is that so?” The rebel rose his optical ridge, snickering amusingly.

“Yeah! And my friends are here to back me up! You’re a goner, so better don’t put up a fight!”

“… you haven’t done that before, have you?”

“PFFF-NO! I have done that plenty of times! I’m a real capturing pro!”

Suddenly, Megatron frowned and made a quick unexpected stomp forward. Hot Rod squeaked from surprise, dropping his bow. As fast as he could, he kneeled and grabbed it, aiming at Megatron again. The rebel grinned.

“A real capturing pro you say?”

“Stop decepting me, will you?!”

Megatron hummed thoughtfully, eyeing a wall behind the youngling. Then he looked down, and saw a pile of scrap laying under his pedes. Suddenly, a smirk crossed his faceplates. 

“So... you wish to capture me then?”

“Um... yeah? You figured it out just now?”

“You know, you look like a good youngling. I’ll give you a little tip at capturing.”

Before Hot Rod could respond, Megatron kicked an old tire at one of the cars, making it fall from it’s place. Panicked Hot Rod shot two fire arrows at it, destroying it and protecting himself.

“Always remember to study your surroundings!” As soon as the rebel could, he ran past him and escaped through the gates into the city.

“HEY, THAT’S CHEATING!”

“EXACLY!”

The red Speedster transformed and followed him.

And so, the chase begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to split up the chapters, because it was just too long for me to handle
> 
> But yeah, he's back! Megs is back and he's staying for good!
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoyed! <3


	15. Mighty Megatron part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hot Rod chases Megatron around the city while Moonracer is in danger.

The first thing Moonracer did was trying to hit Slipstream with her bat. Without any warning, the Seeker sharpened her talons and sliced the incoming metal into pieces like it was nothing. The sea green Speedster’s weapon broke in a matter of seconds, leaving her completely defenceless. Moonracer dropped what was left of it and started backing off, spark shrinking in fear as the pilot kept following her, her red optics never leaving the pointed object she was holding.

Suddenly, Slipstream reached her servo towards Moonracer and opened her palm, stopping right in front of her.

“Give it.” She demanded harshly. The Autobot femmie looked at the object for a brief second before carefully placing it on it’s rightful owner’s servo. She really hoped the Seeker wouldn’t try tearing her arm apart. As soon as the object found itself in Slipstream’s grasp, she clenched her fist and brought closer her other servo.

“You’re... a Decepticon.” The sea green Autobot said, looking at the femmie’s insignia.

“What a perceptive little sparkling you are.” The pilot grumbled, placing the object on her digit. Then, she sharpened the rest of her talons and looked at them admirably. All of them were in their places, none were missing anymore. Suddenly, she grimanced and looked back at the younger femmie. “And in huge trouble.”

“I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you... I promise that I won’t tell anyone that I saw you. I really need to g-”

“Oh, no!” Slipstream interrupted, blocking her way out. “You’re not going anywhere unless you tell me how did you got here.”

Moonracer backed more until her wheels were touching the wall. Slipstream was getting only closer, the difference between their heights getting more visible. The older Seeker was gigantic and very dangerous. “I need a groundbridge that will take me back to Cybertron, and you are going to help me get it.”

“I... I don’t know anything about groundbridges.” Moonracer made sure to get away from the femmie’s talons as far as she could. “I don’t know how to help you.” To her horror, Slipstream smirked.

“Why, you don’t need to know anything about them.” Without any warning, she grabbed the sea green youngling’s arm and hissed, pulling her closer. “You’ll be mine bargain chip.”

Suddenly the lights turned on which caught both femmies off guard. After a second, the parts of Moonracer’s bat were thrown at the Decepticon, hitting her helm and back.

“Hey!” The pilot turned around, letting Moonracer’s arm go. The young Autobot had no idea what was happening, but she decided to step away from the Decepticon. Slipstream completely ignored her and started scanning the place around.

“Stop hiding, you yellow coward! I know you’re still here!”

The youngling was wondering who the other was speaking to when suddenly she felt something touching her arm again. This time however the impact was much lighter than Slipstream’s grasp.

She turned towards the strange force and after a second, a small yellow scout appeared out of nowhere, shushing her.

“It’s okay. I’m a friend!” He whispered.

“Who are you?” She whispered back, making sure that the Decepticon wouldn’t hear.

"Bumblebee. An Elite. Listen, when I give you a signal, you’ll run as fast as you can and find an exit, okay?”

“What’s going on?”

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine. But for now, I need you to trust me. Do you trust me?”

“... Yeah…”

“Good. I’ll catch up!” Without any warning, Bumeblebee put something on the youngling’s wrist. Before she had a chance to ask, he gave her a gentle push and rushed to the Seeker, pulling out his stinger. Slipstream finally spotted him and dodged, making his lose his weapon with one swift kick. Moonracer ran towards the exit, mind full of worry but at the same time relief.

They weren’t completely alone anymore.  
\-----

‘Breaking news! The mysterious giant machines that appeared yesterday in London moved to Cardiff!” The redactor on the human television stated, showing a short recording of Megatron running towards the centre of the city. ‘The police and military are already evacuating the citizens! For those who are still in the line of danger, stay away from those areas...’

“Dear heavens…” One of the men sitting at a table of a small café covered his mouth with his hand. “Look, it’s awfully close to us!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Eliot.” A man sitting next to him snorted, taking a sip of his cup of coffee. “I haven’t heard more fake news since the Alien Invasion of 1938. Giant robots from space don’t exist.”

Just a second later, Megatron landed in front of the café, making the man spit out of his drink and the other stand up and curse.

“Are you keeping up, child?” The rebel shouted, looking if Hot Rod was far away from him. When he established that he was in the right distance, he continued running.

“Get back here!” The youngling jumped as well, chasing after him.

“… You have coffee in your moustache, Lewis.” The man named Eliot eyed his friend which watched the two robots leaving with his jaw dropped.

After some time, Megatron made a sharp turn and disappeared between the buildings in order to lose Hot Rod. The youngling had to stop and look at the whole place before entering. He was amazed how someone as tall as the leader of the Decepticons could fit in something so small.

If Megatron could do it, the red Speedster wouldn’t have any problems as well. Carefully, he stepped inside, studying the place. It looked like a maze with no escape. Now was the time to use the prisoner’s advice, as much as the youngling hated to. As he walked around, he spotted two dead ends, and three ways out. He had to lead Megatron to one of the dead ends to cut his way out. That would leave him with no choice but surrender.

“By the way-” Suddenly, between one of the gaps Megatron appeared, making Hot Rod jump. “I just realized that you didn’t tell me your name!”

“... You... don’t know who I am?” The red Autobot lowered his spoiler. He was sure that the rebel figured out who he was by now. Maybe it was for the better? Considering what happened to his mentor, it wouldn’t be the brightest idea to give up his indentity like that.

“Well, I’m afraid not.” Megatron shook his healm. “That’s why I’m asking! It’s a bit awkward being chased around by someone who’s name you’re not familiar with. How about a proper introduction this time? My name’s Megatron! And you are?”

“I’m... n-no! I’m not giving you my name so easily! It’s one of your evil Decepticon tactics, isn’t it?! Pretending to be all nice and friendly to get my name!”

“Well, okay then. That’s actually pretty responsible of you. But since I need something other than ‘child’ to call you, I’ll think of a nickname for you! How about... Sunny!” Megatron snapped his digits, smiling. “Perfect!”

“What?! I don’t want to be Sunny! How would you feel if I started calling you for example, uh... Buckethead?!”

“Buckethead?... HA! I get it! I love it! Alright, now we both have nicknames! Good luck catching me, Sunny!” The escapee wished him good luck before disappearing in the shadows again.

Hot Rod had it. He decided to try and outsmart the bigger mech instead of blindly following him this time. It was perhaps one of the rarest occasions when he decided to actually think before acting. He began following Megatron’s shadow between the gapes, trying to guess in which direction he was heading to. At first it wasn’t going too well, but once he got the hang of it, he managed to block the Decepticon’s way out.

“Gotcha!” He commented proudly. The rebel’s optics sparked, accepting the challenge. He turned around and ran back where he came from and Hot Rod cut him out again by using a shortcut. It took some time, but Hot Rod successfully guided him to one of the dead ends. He started thinking of some cool one liner as he ran to the dead end to block the rebel’s way out completely.

“Looks like we meet at the dead...” Unfortunately for him, when the red Speedster arrived at the corner, Megatron was already gone.

Hot Rod let out an irritated groan.

\-----

Megatron jumped off the building and landed on the street, looking back with a grin. He haven’t had this much fun since forever. Whoever this youngling was, the rebel owed him his deepest gratitude.

The Decepticon scanned the place around, searching for some good hiding spot, when suddenly he spotted something interesting squeezed between the buildings. A small boxy room in which he sensed some movement caught his attention immediately.

Megatron hummed thoughtfully, stepping closer and kneeling before it. He found a little shop full of some organic creatures which somewhat resembled beastformers. It must have been a pet magazine of some sort, but instead of pets, there were organics. Megatron couldn’t help but stare at them in amazement. They were small, and furry, but also somewhat adorable. In a scientific sort of way that is. Especially the organics with long tails, pointed audials, and shiny eyes. The rebel couldn’t explain why, but they reminded him of someone...

Suddenly, the Decepticon saw in the shop’s window that something was coming towards him with an immense speed. Megatron dodged it and an arrow hit the wall right above him. He turned around and saw Hot Rod jumping from the same building as he did and raised his bow at him, frowning.

“Now looks like we meet at the dead end-”

“Wait a second, did you just fire that arrow from up there?” Megatron interrupted, pointing at the top of the building which was propably like twice his own size.

“Uh…” The youngling turned around, and then glanced back at him confused. “Yeah?”

“That was amazing!” The rebel smiled, giving Hot Rod thumbs up. “You almost hit me! But keep in mind that those creatures propably can’t defend themselves as good as I can and be careful next time, okay?”

The youngling looked at him completely puzzled, before shaking his head and returning to his frown.

“Your sweet words won’t cover the fact that you’re surrounded!”

“Oh well,” The rebel shrugged. “I guess I’ll be going with you the- Look, a Scraplet!” The Decepticon gasped and pointed in another direction. Hot Rod just gave him a judgmental stare, optics never leaving his frame.

“Worth a try.” Megatron smirked. Without any warning, he jumped into the mid air and transformed into a jet.

“Hey! How’s that fair, I can’t fly!” Hot Rod didn’t expect to get an answer, but he got it anyway. The rebel stopped. He transformed back and clapped his servo against his head.

“Right! I completely forgot! I need a different alt mode!” Megatron looked around and found a parking lot nearby. He took a quick glance at it and spotted a big racing car with black paint and red accents.

“That one just begs me to pick it up.”

“Yeah, but you’re a flier. How are you supposed to-”

Megatron just ignored him, scanning the vehicle. He took a brief ex vent before transforming. To the younger mech’s surprise, the rebel turned into the racing car he picked. Hot Rod widened his optics.

“How did you-”

“Holy Kaon!!!” Megatron laughed as he started turning on and off his front lights. “It works!!! It really works!!! Look at me! I’m a Speedster!!!” He activated his engine, which let out a powerful roar. “I’ve never felt so alive in my entire life!!! Not even a tank feels as powerful!!! You are one lucky bot to experience it everyday!!!”

“Uh…”

“Look! Look! I can do THIS!” The red Speedster was staring in shock as Megatron started making donuts, playing with his honk like it was his very first day of transformation.

“I’m… so confused right now.”

“Come on, Sunny! Let’s test if this old mech still has the touch!” The Decepticon honked for the last time, flickered his lights and aggresively stepped on the gas, leaving nothing but a thick cloud of smoke behind .

Hot Rod returned to the reality a second after. He transformed as well, chasing him as fast as he could. There was no point in holding back his inner flames at this point.

\-----

Bumblebee managed to escape Slipstream’s talons and began driving around her to tire her out. The Seeker was firing her missiles everywhere to hit him. At this rate, the enitre magazine was going to collapse soon.

Meanwhile Moonracer found her way out and escaped from the building. The sound of exploding missiles got her really worried, but she knew she couldn’t get back. After a second, she realized that her amica was trying to reach her for an enitre cycle.

“Hot Rod?” The sea green Autobot decided to call him back. “I’m so sorry, I know that I was supposed to comn immediately, but things got really complicated!”

;Yeah!; The red Speedster picked up and replied. ;Same!;

“But I have some good news! The Elites are here! We’re saved!”

;Great! I’ll catch Megatron and be at your position!;

“Megatron?! He’s with you?!”

Suddenly, the femmie heard some deeper voice in the background asking: ;Who’s that you’re talking to, Sunny?;

;Are you seriously driving backwards on the wrong side of the road?!;

“What’s happening in there?!”

;I gotta go!;

“Wait! Where are y...ou.” Hot Rod hanged up, leaving his amica even more horrified than ever before. She had to pintpoint his location as fast as she could, he could’ve been in grave danger!

Bumblebee finally got tired of his own game and slowed down a bit. That’s when Slipstream took her chance and opened fire to him for the last time. The scout managed to change back and ran away from the attack which detroyed one of the walls instead. While she was distracted, he rushed to her and kicked her arm, making her hit the ceiling. The ceiling exploded, making Moonracer outside step back and gasp.

The pilot spreaded her wings and activated her jetpack. She tried to fly through the hole, but before she was able to escape, Bumblebee grabbed her leg, trying to hold her down.

“Get off!” Slipstream commanded and tried to kick him off with her free pede.

“So you can blow up the enitre place with me in it?! How about no!” The scout held even tighter.

“Fine! Be that way!” The Seeker snarled and flew in the air with the yellow Autobot holding on to her.  
\-----

Megatron and Hot Rod left the centre of the city and were driving next to the nearest bay. The youngling for the whole ride was trying to analyze this mystery of a bot he not that long ago meant to take down. Was this some sort of game? Was this part of his evil plan or something? Just for the sake of trying not to end up like Optimus, he was willing to keep his guard up. 

All of a sudden, Megatron transformed and stopped. The youngling barely managed to reach his breaks and transform too.

“What was that all about?! I could’ve crashed!”

“This is the end of the road!” The rebel turned to him with nothing but a serious expression.

“Oh great, are you going to go full monologue on me now?!”

“No, I mean it’s literally the end of the road.” After a second, Megatron stepped away, revealing a stop sign. “The constructions are working nearby.”

“… oh.” Hot Rod felt a bit embarrased. “Sorry... Wait. That means that I caught you!”

“I suppose it is.” Megatron grinned, crossing his arms.

“Finally!” The red Speedster cheered.

“Yes, finally!" The rebel cheered with him, chuckling.

“... Why are you so happy? You’re going back to jail!”

“Oh well, shucks.” Megatron snapped his digits, admitting his defeat. Hot Rod lowered his optical ridge.

“You’re okay with that?”

“Not in the slightest! But then again, you still have to find a way to drag me all the way back to your ship. I’m not going to make it any easier for you.”

“Um... ship?” Hot Rod gave him a confused look which made him drop his act for a second.

“Yes, ship. Isn’t that how you got here?”

The youngling looked away, cringing. “Well, about that...”

Suddenly, the Decepticon spotted something in the air. Hot Rod noticed that and turned around. Two objects were flying around, trying to push one away from the other. After a quick scan, both mechs noticed that those objects were a big silver and purple Seeker and a small yellow Autobot. Megatron seemed to be shocked.

“Bee?...”

“Who?”

“I’ll be right back.” The escapee transformed and drove away, leaving Hot Rod behind.

“Oh no you don’t!” The youngling transformed again and followed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehehe
> 
> I've been waiting for this chapter since I began writing ;3c


	16. Ups and Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group reunites at last- cue chaos!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi cupcakes, I'm not dead! Enjoy!
> 
> *yeets new chapter and runs*

Bulkhead arrived at Cardiff with captain Smith in his vehicle. Humans were already getting evacuated by the local authorities. It would seem that most of them were leaving the city by now. The green mech made a reckless decision to transform, revealing his robot form. Some of the citizens looked at him and panicked. As soon as he realized his mistake, Bulkhead widened his optics, raising his servos and stepping back in order to calm them down a bit.

“This one is with us!” Smith said through the megaphone. “I repeat, this one is with us! Follow the emergency personel and don’t cause any panic! Everything’s under control!”

“Something’s wrong.” The retired enginner said quietly.

“Yeah, no kidding.” The human captain looked at him.

“No, no, I mean... My scanners pick more spark energy than they’re supposed to. Hot Rod, Moonracer, Megatron, but also a few more.”

“Can you track them?”

“No.”

Just then, a big racing car drove by on the road before them, leaving a thick cloud of smoke behind.

“Hey!” The captain was about to start his car and chase the reckless driver before they hurt anyone, when suddenly another, smaller car followed them. The familiar flames on it’s paintjob made Bulkhead recognize the second individual.

“Hot Rod!” The green Autobot shouted. The speedster unfortunately didn’t hear him.

“I’m going after him!”

“I’m going with you!”

“No, your people need all the help they can get! Hot Rod is my responsibility and I can stop him!”

“Can I trust you to clean up this mess?”

“Thankfully, cleaning other’s messes is like my proffesion nowdays.”

“Don’t make me regret it.” The captain pointed his finger at Bulkhead, before driving to control the small outburst of panic. The retired engineer transformed and chased after Hot Rod.

\-----

Slipstream flew above the highest building in the city, trying to kick Bumblebee off her. The scout tried his best not to let go and fall all the way down to the ground, so he tightened his grip from time to time. The pilot attempted to reach him with her sharp talons, but she accidentally hit her leg and hissed in pain.

Bumblebee used his opportunity and tried to find his stinger. After a second he realized that he didn’t have it with him.

“Scrap!”

Just then, Slipstream finally caught the scout and threw him on one of the taller buldings’ roofs. Bumblebee painfully collided with the ground, groaning. He didn’t have a chance to rest, because Slipstream began shooting rockets at him.

\-----

Megatron arrived near the building where the incident was taking place at. He transformed, looking up. He saw how the yellow scout was standing up just to avoid another attack from furious Slipstream. The escapee knew he had to do something. Now he wished he had his fusion canon back more than anything.

“Come on, think.” Megatron thought aloud, trying to figure out the quickest way to get up there.

Hot Rod finally catched up, transforming as well. “I captured you! You’re not supposed to-”

“Not now, Sunny, I’m thinking.” The rebel stopped him with his servo, gaze never leaving the sky. “I need to get up there and try to stop Slipstream from-”

Suddenly, without any warning, Megatron disappeared. Hot Rod’s optics widened.

\-----

“-hurting my ex student! Wait...” The rebel suddenly found himself on a roof, three buildings away from the battling Cybertronians.

“... Well, that was convenient.”

\-----

The red Speedster was just completely lost. The last things Megatron did he could take, but this...

“Kid!” Hot Rod turned around and saw a familiar vehicle approaching. Bulkhead transformed and ran to him with worried expression.

“Are you alright? Nothing’s broken?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m okay, don’t worry-**Ow**!” Without any warning, Bulkhead smacked him on the helm.

“Didn't you have enough stupid adventures for one day?!”

“Ouch! Ouch! Bulk! I’m sorry! But I had to! Megatron was going to take the Matrix! I had to stop him!”

“Megatron was going to do what?!”

“I met him! I was chasing him! I almost captured him, you have to believe me!”

“Where is he now?”

“He disappeared!”

Bulkhead frowned at that.

“No, I’m serious! He was standing there when suddenly something... something bright appeared and-”

Suddenly, the building they were next to was hit by a bright laser. The retired engineer took terrified Hot Rod away as soon as it happened, stepping away from the falling rubble.

“That was this something bright?!”

“No!” The youngling held his watcher tightly. “The previous bright was harmless!”

“Well well well!” A raspy voice sounded through the area. Bulkhead looked around and saw a buff looking mech with an optic patch walking out of his hiding. Smoke was coming out of his shoulder canon. The green Autobot immediately recognized him.

“Breakdown?” He asked, narrowing his optics.

Breakdown smirked, transforming and smashing his battle hammers together. “Present! And looks like the Mighty Wrecker is still around too!” The green Autobot put Hot Rod down, grimancing at the other.

“Bulk?” The red Speedster tugged his watcher’s arm. “What’s going on? Who is this? And what’s Mighty Wrecker?”

The green Autobot turned to him, immediately shifting his expression into something less angered.

“Nothing. He’s trying to make me mad.”

“Daaaw, you’ve got bitties now?” The one eyed mech laughed. “Next thing you’re gonna tell me is that you found yourself a conjux!”

“I did not. And better keep a record of your own life!”

“Bulk, seriously, who is that?”

“A dangerous criminal.”

“Why so harsh?” The Decepticon medic tilted his helm. “Aren’t you happy to see your old buddy?”

“What do you want?” The Autobot only responded dryly.

“Something you might like! I have orders to get rid of every Autobot I’ll see, so I gotta do what I gotta do! But no one said you can’t have your fun with fighting back!”

“I’m done with fighting.”

“Then you’ll die screaming like a baby scraplet.”

“Hey!” Without any warning, Hot Rod ran before the green mech and aimed his armed bow at the stranger. Bulkhead widened his optics.

“You heard him! He doesn’t want to do anything with you!”

“Hot Rod!...”

“Whoah! We have a warrior in here! Wonder if he can fight as good as he threatens!”

“That’s it!” Bulkhead protectively pushed the youngling behind him. “You can insult me all you want, but don’t invlove him in this!”

“Wanna stop me? Or are you done with defending too?” Breakdown just chortled dryly.

“No. I don’t want this, but I’m afraid I have to.” Suddenly, Bulkhead’s servos clenched. Hot Rod honestly did not expect this kind of reaction from his watcher.

“You’re... you’re not seriously going to fight him, right?”

“Find Moonracer and find some place safe. Better as far from here as possible.”

“But-”

“Now!” Bulkhead used his warning tone. Of all the tones he used in front of Hot Rod, none of them sounded so... harsh. The red youngling hesitantly took two steps back and then ran away from the two mechs.

“What a shame. The bitty won’t have a chance to see his caretaker in action!” The one eyed Decepticon continued teasing.

“He’s not my youngling.” Bulkhead said as an old long forgotten flame of determination sparked in his yellow optics. “And my name is Bulkhead.”

Without any warning, Breakdown rushed at him with a battle roar. Bulkhead effectively dodged, then grabbed him by the collar and with one swift throw, he smashed him against the ground.

\-----

Hot Rod heard the metal crash and got frightened. His watcher couldn’t fight for Primus’ sake! How was he supposed to-

Suddenly the youngling felt like he bumped into something which caused him to fall and cry out. As he rose his head and looked around, he saw nothing standing in his way. And yet...

“Hot Rod!” A voice without a speaker spoke.

“Wh-”

“Thank Primus I found you before Megatron did!” Hot Rod felt a sudden squeeze around his frame which caused him to jump. It took him a few seconds but he finally recognized the voice.

“Moony?!” He backed off from the impact and started looking around, searching for his amica. Weirdly enough, she was nowhere to be seen.

“W-where are you?”

“What do you mean ‘where are you’? I’m right before you!”

Hot Rod looked forward, tilting his helm and grimancing. “You are?”

There was a long pause. The sea green femmie looked at the glass of a building next to them and searched for her reflection. To her surprise, only Hot Rod’s could be seen.

“What-?!” Moonracer’s voice shouted. **“Where am I?!”**

“That’s what I’ve been telling you! How did this happen?!”

“I don’t know? I met a crazy Decepticon that threatened to take me hostage-" "What?!" "It's okay! I'm okay! An Elite bot showed up and put something on my...”

After a second she looked at her wrist and noticed a small device attached to her. Moonracer carefully removed it and after a few seconds she was fully visible.

“Whoah...” Hot Rod commented, looking at the device. “What is that?”

“I’m not sure. Bumblebee just gave it to me.”

“Who?”

“Nevermind.” Moonracer scanned the object. “By the way, you wouldn’t have seen a small yellow bot and an angry Seeker anywhere, have you?”

After she asked that, the two younglings heard a commotion nearby. Both of them looked up and saw a small yellow bot trying to escape an angry looking Seeker flying around shooting missiles at him. Some of the rubble fell around them and they had to dodge it.

“Those guys?” Hot Rod pointed his digit at the two. “Yeah, I think I’ve seen enough of them already!”

“Why isn’t he fighting back?” Moonracer worriedly murmured to herself.

\-----

Bumblebee rolled around, avoiding the incoming series of rockets. The roof was barely a roof anymore as another attacks were thrown at it, causing it to crumble.

Slipstream tried to fire another missiles, but her magazine suddenly emptied.

“Looks like you’re out of the firepower!” The scout grinned, raising up his fists. Slipstream only smirked and transformed her arms into two blasters which she pointed at him.

“… Seriously, where do you get all this stuff from?!”

Without answering, the Seeker opened fire. The scout transformed and escaped just in time to avoid some of the laser gunshots which were followed by small explosions.

\-----

“Bee!” Megatron needed to do something. He was so close, but he didn’t have his Seeker mode anymore. He couldn’t wait for another miracle force to take him to his target, he had to decide what action should he take next.

The rebel looked down and then up. The building he was located on appeared to be quite tall, but not tall enough to reach the one he was heading to. However, he saw a clear path between two buildings, a crain, and another building with something on it’s roof that looked like something that he could use as a ramp. Each of the buildings was further than the other and if Megatron fell, well, he didn’t have his flying alt mode that could save his sorry aft from dramatic crash and possible death anymore.

The meant there was no other way than...

A spark of excitement crossed his faceplates, and a hint of nervousness filled his crimson optics. He haven’t done something like that in a while.

Megatron stepped back, taking air into his vents.

“I’ve got this...” He silently motivated himself as he was about to do something pretty crazy and risky.

He shifted from pede to pede, rolled his shoulders and shook his entire frame before rushing towards the building’s edge and jumping. He landed on the roof of another building only to jump again and grab the crane’s arm, sliding down it’s upper sheave. He swung around it, aiming at his next target. When he finally let go, he made an acrobating sammersault in the air. The world felt like it’s slowed down as Megatron was gracefully drifting on the air like he wasn’t a giant metal being that he was. He couldn’t not take a moment and appreciate that brief moment of freedom rushing with the wind around. He forgot how much he loved being in the air.

Finally, he was close to landing. The rebel finished his roll and landed on another building, legs and servos on the floor. Megatron let out a painful vent as his injuries reminded him of their presence. But nonethless, the mech smiled widely. That was pretty awesome, no matter what was happening. But his run wasn’t quite done yet. He still had one more building to go. 

The sound of gun shots was getting louder. He did it. The last obstacle to finish.

He got this.

Megatron transformed and stepped on his gas, going on full speed towards the ‘ramp’ he saw earlier. The rebel jumped out of it, finding himself in the air again. When he was close to it’s roof, he transformed and held onto the building’s edges, trying to climb up. He could see the fight clearly now.

Slipstream took a new strategy against Bumblebee which incuded his biggest disadvantage in this situation.

Flight.

Everytime she flew up, she blasted her guns, and when she was flying lower, she tried to catch Bumblebee with her talons. Bumblebee kept dodging, but he wouldn’t be able to defend himself without his weapon for long. He felt so small and powerless, but he kept fighting. Suddenly however, he lost his rythm and got caught up in the Seeker’s fire which made him shout and painfully land on his back.

“Bee!” Megaatron almost let go, putting his elbows on the roof and supporting himself. His frame was screaming from pain and the lack of grounding beheath him, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily.

“Slipstream! Cease your fire! This is an order from your leader!”

The pilot got distracted and accidentally blasted spot where Megatron was hanging from. Her shot exploded and made the ex leader of the Decepticons fall with a horrified scream. Slipstream noticed it after a couple of seconds.

“Whoops...”

She was low enough for Bumblebee to tackle her with a battle cry and hold her down.

Megatron was falling all the way down. He didn’t believe he had to do it again, but he needed another miraculous situation.

“Come on, come ON!” He beat his chest, trying to activate whatever was inside of his spark that made him teleport. “Take me away! Take me to the ground!” Seconds were separating him from the fall, and suddenly, it was too late. The rebel covered his faceplates, waiting to crash, when suddenly his efforts payed off and a groundbridge took him away.

The portal appeared on one of the buildings. Megatron rolled away from it, stopping after hitting an abandoned truck nearby.

“HAH-” He wheezed, looking at the closing groundbridge. The rebel examined his frame, laughing in huge relief.

“YES!” Megatron rose his arms to the air, not holding back on his loud tone. “I DID IT! I’M THE ONE IN CONTRO-”

Suddenly, his spark started flickering, as if informing him what was going to happen next.

“... Oh, spawn of a-”

And just like that, he started flashing and randomly teleoprting from place to place again.

\-----

“Hold on... That’s it!” Moonracer suddenly remebered something from the magazine she was trapped in earlier. Bumblebee had his weapon back there, but didn’t seem to have it now.

He left his weapon back there!

“I’ll be right back.” She told Hot Rod and transformed, catching the other off guard.

“Whoah whoah whoah whoah, where are you going?”

“I need to check on something! Can you make sure that the Decepticon won’t harm Bumblebee while I’m away?”

“You mean you want me to attack the Seeker who has actual laser canons?!”

“Yeah!”

“Will do!” Hot Rod smirked, pulling out his bow. Without wasting any more time, Moonracer turned around and was on her way back.

Meanwhile Hot Rod jumped on the biggest vehicle he could find and aimed at the Seekeer.

\-----

“Who are you working for?! Why did you attack Optimus?!” Bumblebee tried to pin Slipstream to the ground and prevent her from escaping, but unfortunately, his ridiculously small size was making it so much difficult than it appeared to be.

“So many questions, so little answers.” The Decepticon pilot snarled. After a second, she managed to release herself from his grip and grasp his wrist, pulling him up. Bumblebee tried to kick and punch her at the same time, but she just distanced him in the way he couldn’t reach her.

“For someone so tiny you sure make a lot of fuss.”

“Thanks. For such a skilled fighter you sure talk a lot.“ Bumblebee snapped back. Slipstream grimanced and aimed her blaster at him.

She was about to finish her job when suddenly she felt something stinging her in the back. The Decepticon let out a small cry before transforming her second servo back to normal and searching for whatever hit her.

She pulled out a red Energon arrow which appeared to be used for training activities. It was followed by a series of firecrackers and smokeboms in seemingly every color known to Cybertronian kind. They left colourful trails on her wings and plating.

Slipstream let out an annoyed groan, throwing Bumblebee on the ground and walking to the edge of the building. She spotted Hot Rod shooting at her with everything he could find in his boot.

“Little punk.” Slipstream growled and aimed her gun at him.

That’s when Bumblebee took his chance again. He transformed and as fast as he could and bumped into her, making her fall.

“Gotcha!” Meanwhile Hot Rod was celebrating his little victory.

\-----

Breakdown blew a powerful punch at Bulkhead’s faceplates which made some big dents on his jaw. The green Autobots counterattacked with slightly less force, managing to kick the Decepticon in the stomach.

“You’re pushing back...” This made Breakdown annoyed fast. “You're never pushing back!”

The Decepticon medic charged at Bulkhead with his battle hammers, roaring like a wild beast. The retired engineer had too little time to dodge so he shielded himself with his arms instead. The blow was so strong that Bulklhead almsot fell back, grunting his denta.

“What happened to you, Wrecker?! Where’s the warrior I once knew from the arena?!”

“He stayed in the arena!” Bulkhead pushed back, waiting for another attack. When Breakdown was close again, he grabbed the nearest car he could find with both servos. “My name is-” Without any warning, he swung it around. When Breakdown finally realized what the other was planning it was too late.

**“-Bulkhead!”** The green engineer smashed the vehicle against Breakdown’s head. The Decepticon shouted, falling on the ground as mehanical pieces, both his and the vehicle’s, dropped on the ground around. Bulkhead stepped back and threw the car on top of his rival. Suddenly, he felt sharp pain in his back strut which caused him to fall and groan.

Breakdown seemed to fall into stasis after that devastating knockout, because he didn’t return on his pedes right away.

“Frag...” The retired engineer coughed, shakingly standing up. His ex vents were irregular and his frame was in pain, but he was going to live. “I’m so glad kid wasn’t here to see this...”

After some time, he heard an incoming scream. Bulkhead understood that it was coming from the above so he looked up and noticed a tall shadow getting bigger and bigger and he finally realized that it was coming right at him.

“What the s-” Before the shadow had a chance to collide with Bulkhead, a sudden flash appeared and took both of them with it.

Breakdown came online a few minutes later, pushing the car off him and looking around.

“... Hey!” The Decepticon snarled realizing that his rival wasn’t around. “Where'd you go?!”

\-----

Bulkhead slowly opened his optics. To his surprise, he found himself at another location. It was... weird. He thought humans were too primitive to have a ground-

“Please don’t disappear. Please don’t disappear. Please don’t disappear.-”

Suddenly, he felt someoene’s grip around him. He moved his head and saw a tall dark Cybertronian desperately trying to hold onto him. He kept murmuring the same sentence over and over again.

After a second Bulkhead recognized his, at least in his opinion, iconic voice.

“Megatron?” It was no one other than the Decepticon leader himself.

Megatron tightened his grip around Bulkhead, preventing himself from falling down. Bulkhead reacted to that squeeze by grabbing the bigger mech by his arms, waiting for him to let go. It took longer than he expected, but finally.

“Oh thank Primus.” The rebel ex vented in relief, pulling back. “I was sure that I’m going to…” His shiny red optics widened when they met with the yellow ones of a bot he held onto.

“Bulkhead?”

Without any warning, the rebel teleported, taking the green Autobot with him again. They both hit the ground, Bulkhead landed on his back while Megatron straight on his faceplates.

“Bulkhead!” He rose from the ground with the happiest expression anyone could’ve ever imagined. “I can’t believe it’s really you!” The retired engineer tried to stand up and gave him a questioning look.

“You… you remember me?”

“Of course I do!” The rebel helped him on his pedes, chuckling. “How could I ever forget you?!” Megatron’s laugh rang in Bulkhead’s audials as he tried to process some things. Megatron seemed more... energetic than he remembered.

“Oh Bulkhead, you have no idea what crazy day am I having!” Definetly more energetic. Also, more expresionable. “First the whole Alchemor incident, then the Nemesis, and now this planet! So far I’ve been shot, chased, almost killed twice, and Primus knows what else because I think already forgot! I’ve seen more in one day than I remembered during my entire imprisoment!”

“I... I see.”

“But enough about me, how are you? How’s your life for the past few millenias? Did you become an engineer like you wanted?”

“Well... I did, but-”

“That’s fantastic! That’s very fantastic! And look at you!” Megatron stepped back and took a quick glance at the Autobot’s frame. “Green paint and no spikes is new. You look great!.” Bulkhead was about to say something when the Decepticon almost tackled him with another hug. “You have no idea how happy I am to see a familiar face that isn’t trying to kill me!”

“Uhm… Megatron?”

“Yes?”

“Can you let go off me? I... I don’t like hugs.” Megatron felt like something died in him at that moment. Slowly and embarrasingly painful.

“… oh. Oh! I’m so sorry!” The rebel pulled back, smiling nervously. “I didn’t mean to…”

“Yes, I know. Just... don’t do it again.”

“Riiiight, right! That would be weird. That’s weird, isn’t it? Yes...” Megatron let out a nervous chuckle, scratching his neck plating. There was a long awkward silence between them before Bulkhead decided to try and start a new conversation. At least the Decepticon leader seemed to be calm so far.

“So... Did you fall into one of the groundbridges too?”

“What?”

“The groundbridges. The ones which randomly started appearing on Cybertron.”

“Groundbridges started appearing on Cybertron?”

“You didn’t know? Then how did you arrive at this planet?”

“Oh, that’s a pretty long and funny story! It all began at the-” Suddenly, Megatron dematerialized which made Bulkhead widen his optics.

“-ge appared out of nowhere! Just swooped in and found me!” The green Autobot jumped, glancing at his other side where the Decepticon appeared after a few seconds. “I was so happy I thought I might-” He disappeared again, only to appear on Bulkhead’s other side another second later. “-then I almost fell into the smelting pool! By the way, when did the Alchemor decide to have those? They caught me completely off guard! Anyway, here’s the trickiest part-” This time Megatron was gone for a bit longer, but he finally arrived back. He materialized too close to Bulkhead and when he tried to spread his arms, he almost hit the green mech in the helm.

“And that’s pretty much how I got here!”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?” Megatron put his servos on his waist, smiling at him. It didn’t take long for his spark to start flickering again. “Oh. You didn’t hear what I was saying, did you?”

“No, and I’m even more confused that I was before.” The retired engineer shook his head.

Suddenly, their audials picked something big and loud approaching. Breakdown drove in like a road maniac, starting making donuts around both of them. Finally, he transformed and smashed his hammers against the ground. 

“You didn’t think you were going to escape from me that easily, were y-”

“Hi Breakdown!” Suddenly, the Decepticon noticed Megatron waving to him with a smile.

“Holy frag, **a ghost!**” Breakdown widened his optics.

**“Where?!”** The rebel started looking around. Bulkhead groaned and ran his servo down his faceplates.

“You didn’t tell me you could summon undead, Wrecker!”

“It’s because I can’t, and I’m **not** Wrecker. And he-” Bulkhead grabbed Megatron’s arm and turned him towards the one eyed Decepticon. “-is not dead. Right Megatron?”

“Well, I do feel pretty alive actually-”

“See? You can stop attacking now! Your leader wants you to step down, right Megatron?” The silence came as Megatron’s faceplates shifted into something unreadable. Surprisingly, Breakdown became somewhat ashamed.

“... Megatron?” Bulkhead looked at him questionably. The rebel avoided his look with heavy spark. 

“Well, this is... this is kind of awkward...” Breakdown transformed his weapons back to his servos and scratched the back of his head. “I mean, I’m very thankful for everything you did, sir, but...”

“No, I understand.” The rebel grabbed his arm and looked at his ex ally with a sad smile. “Alright, maybe I don't. I don't think I do. I just wish I knew where have I gone so wrong to deserve overthrowing.”

“It’s not about you. It really isn’t. It’s about the cause. I swear, this is nothing personal.”

“You’ve been overthrown?!” Bulkhead couldn’t believe his own audials. “By who?!” The escapee just looked at him, smile dropping.

“Okay, I literally can’t take it anymore, c-can we finally start punching each other?! I feel uncomfortable when he’s like this!“ Breakdown aggresively pleaded, utter pain forming on his faceplates as he activated his laser canon.

“First you overthrow him, then expect him not to feel horrible?!”

“Thanks, Bulk-”

“Maybe he wants to speak how he feels! He has a very good reason to!” Megatron sighed in defeat.

\-----

Hot Rod almost completely emptied his arsenal when Moonracer returned at last. The youngling fired his last arrow and ran to her.

“Finally, where have you-”

“No time to explain, I need you to launch this at them!” Moonracer transformed and presented to her amica a yellow and black striped stinger.

\-----

Slipstream landed another punch at Bumblebee’s faceplates. The scout quickly recovered from it and tried to cut the Seeker’s legs. The Decepticon pilot dodged, stepped back and flew high in the sky again. She was preparing her final attack.

\-----

Hot Rod put the scout’s weapon on his bow and aimed at him.

“Not yet... not yet, aaaaaand... GO!” After a second, he released the shot.

\-----

“Bumblebee!” Bumblebee heard a voice of a familiar femmie. He looked down and smiled when he saw his incoming weapon.

With an immense speed, Slipstream swooped at Bumblebee like a bird of prey. The scout caught in stinger in mid air activated it. When his enemy was close, he jumped and flipped back, hopping right on her back. Before the Decepticon could shake him off, his stinger collided with her plating and the pilot immediately froze. Both of them fell on one of the smaller buildings, rolling. After a second, the yellow Elite stood up, stepped back from his enemy, and made sure that she was out of action. Thankfully, she was. He ex vented in relief and looked down, seeing two younglings waving their arms in his direction.

Bumblebee let out a small relieved huff when suddenly he noticed something in other direction which made Energon in his lines freeze. A couple meteres away three mechs were standing and arguing on the street. He recognized Breakdown, his old friend Bulkhead, and...

“Megatron...” The scout grunted his denta and transformed, driving towards the nearest shopping mall and down to it’s parking lot.

“Where is he going?” Hot Rod didn’t hide his surprise.

“I don’t know, but I feel like I should follow him.” Moonracer replied, transforming.

“Let me know if you’ll find Bulkhead. I’m really worried about him.”

“How come?”

“Let’s hope you won’t find out.”

“If you say so.” She said and followed the yellow scout.

\-----

Megatron was just silently watching as the two mechs argued when suddenly he saw something in the distance. He transformed and without any word drove away.

“Megatron!” The green Autobot tried to follow him, but Breakdown blocked him.

\------

The red Speedster was looking around for his arrows that weren’t damaged. Suddenly he noticed that a groundbridge appeared on the roof paralyzed Slisptream was lying at. Some weird one eyed Cybertronian walked out of it and kneeled before the the frozen Seeker, picking her up.

“You there!” Hot Rod put an arrow he found on his bow and aimed at the stranger who quickly noticed him. “Drop that criminal now and surrender!”

The Decepticon titled his helm before loading his arm gun and pointing it at the youngling. The red Autobot let out a gasp. Before he had a chance to react, the stranger aimed his gun higher and shot a building the youngling was under. After that, he disappeared in his portal with Slipstream.

The building started collapsing. A big piece of it’s conctruction was heading right at Hot Rod. The red Speedster wanted to jump back, but his fear paralyzed him.

Before the rubble fell on Hot Rod, Megatron managed to swoop in and grab the youngling, teleporting away.

—–

Breakdown and Bulkhead were wrestling with each other when suddenly the one eyed Decepticon looked up and widened his optic as if he also noticed something. The green Autobot took his opportunity and flipped him over his own back. Breakdown growled and opened his comn link.

“I’m not done yet! I’m about to finish him, so don’t interrupt!”

Bulkhead had no idea who was he talking about and he didn’t have a chance to guess because Breakdown jumped back on his pedes and ran at him, pulling out his battle hammers. The green mech rose his fists and snarled, preparing himself for an attack that never came.

Without any warning, a groundbridge appeared before the Decepticon and took him away. Bulkhead’s snarl turned into a surprised grimance as he loosened up a bit.

Groundbridge... So it really was a groundbridge.

“Where is he?!” The retired engineer stepped back as a small yellow scout slid before him, activating his stinger.

“Bumblebee?” Bulkhead asked. Bumblebee turned to him.

“Where is Megatron?

“Wh-”

“Bumblebee!” Both of the mechs turned around and saw Moonracer running towards them. “Are you okay? That Seeker was really scary!”

“I’m fine. She didn’t hurt you, did she?”

“Thanks to you.” She smiled and showed him the device he gave her back at the magazine. “I’m not sure what it is, but it helped me hide.” Bumblebee took his belonging and nodded. The sea green femmie glanced at the frowning Bulkhead. He was frowning at her, however that wasn’t her biggest conern at the moment.

“What happened to you?” She asked, pointing at his injuries.

“What happened to Hot Rod?” The green Autobot quickly changed the topic.

“He’s-” Just then, the group saw a building falling in the distance.

“Hot Rod!” The fembot gasped.

“Let’s go!” Bumblebee tried to transform but Bulkhead grabbed both of them before they moved even an inch.

“The chasing game is over!” He remarked seriously. “This time we’re going as a group!“

—–

Hot Rod onlined his optics as he felt pressing touch on his frame. He expected to be under the rubble but the feeling was… somewhat less crushing than he expected. He looked up, understanding what happened. He wasn’t under the collapsed building. In fact, he wasn’t at the same location either.

“Are you alright?” Someone asked, startling him a bit.

“What?” Hot Rod whispered in disbelief as he saw who was the one shielding him. After a few seconds, Megatron pulled back and placed his servos on the youngling’s shoulders.

“Are you alright?” He repeated his question with soft, caring expression Hot Rod the least expected to see.

“You... You saved me.”

A small smile formed on the Megatron’s faceplates as he nodded.

“I don’t understand. Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Saved me! Why did you save me?”

“Because you were in danger?” The Decepticon rose his optical ridge. “I couldn’t just let you get crashed, could I?”

“Yeah. You could. That’s what bad guys do. At least those guys seemed okay with it.” Hot Rod’s voice became quieter. Megatron shrugged.

“I’m not one of them.”

Hot Rod didn’t know what to make out of this statement. Could he really trust it? Megatron could as well be lying, that’s what he did. Right?

“So...” Hot Rod began again, crossing his and giving the bigger mech an unsure look. “You’re not a bad guy?”

“If you’d ask me, I don’t feel so bad. I feel pretty amazing, actually. And you?”

"I... I don't know. This is so..."

"Strange?" Megatron gave him a small toothy grin. "Yes, I agree. Don't worry, it's everyone's reaction when they first meet me." After some time the older mech stood up, looking forward.

"Come on, Sunny. I'll take you back to the rest."

“ Actually…” looked up, smiling, “My name is Hot Rod.”

That caught Megatron off guard for a second, but then he glanced at him and smiled back. 

“It's very nice to meet you, Hot Rod” He replied.

Suddenly, Megatron’s smile dropped and the mech froze in place for longer than a few second. That got Hot Rod worried.

“Megatron? Are you…?” The youngling gave him a gentle nudge and the mech fell on the ground, making a loud thump. He had a stinger stuck on his back.

“What the-”

“Stay back!”

Hot Rod made a startled yelp when he felt someone trying to pull him away from the fallen Decepticon. He turned around and saw a smaller yellow bot who was fighting the flier earlier. Moonracer and Bulkhead were behind him. The bot walked closer to Megatron and pulled out his weapon from his back, it’s sharp edge never stopping pointing at him.

"Don't worry, you're safe now!"

“What are you doing?!” Hot Rod freed himself from his grip and stepped back. The yellow bot seemed to be shocked at that. Moonracer stepped forward to her amica.

“Hot Rod, it’s alright! This is the Elite I was talking about earlier!”

"You said this guy was with us!" Hot Rod said. Moonracer was just as confused.

"He is with us! You were in danger!"

"I- I wasn't! I think..."

"Bumblebee, that was really unneccessary." Bulkhead kneeled in front of Megatron.

"Oh, so now I'm the bad guy for trying to protect him?!"

"He was just talking to me! He was going to bring me back to you!"

After some time Bulkhead looked up and noticed something in the distance.

"Hot Rod, you didn't believe him, right?" Moonracer said.

"I... Okay, maybe I did, but he didn't do anything to me! He saved me from a falling building!"

"Why were you even near that falling building in the first place?" Bumblebee said.

"It wasn't falling on me before! A Decepticon made it- A-a different Decepticon! They took the person you were fighting with and dipped!"

"Hold on." The yellow scout looked up where he fought with Slipstream before. "She's gone?!"

Suddenly Bulkhead up and walked in front of the group. The younglings could hear him swearing under his breath. They all gazed in his direction and saw a whole lot of military vehicles approaching.

They could already tell they were in big trouble


	17. Not quite the beginning we've been expecting part 1

The little metal jaguar giggled, trying to chase after a snow owl. 

Airazor was flying around, awoiding getting captured by Flowspade. 

The sparkling turned around to her caretaker who was sitting on a park bench and chatting with Airachnid.

“Yes, sweetspark!” Airachnid smiled. “Don’t fly too high and let your friend have some fun too!”

The Predacon lady chuckled at her sparkling’s response.

“Incredible, not that long ago they were just little protorofms.” Nighscream commented, supporting her head with her servo.

“Yes, I can’t believe it either.” Airachnid leaned on her extra limbs and crossed her arms, smirking. “A month or two and they’ll be grown enough to discuss politics with.” The Maximal let out an amused snort.

The two sparklings moved away from their caretakers and started playing near the small Energon lake nearby.

Airazor singed, making a loop in the sky. She turned around to face her friend during the flight. The sparkling jaguar growled, but suddenly noticed something and stopped.

The snow owl smirked thriumphantly.

Flowspade warned.

Airazor wanted to turn around and see what her friend was talking about, but before she knew, she entered a suddenly appared groundbridge which closed after she crossed it.

The alarmed sparkling ran back to the chatting femmies.

She transformed and almost crashed on Nightscream who stopped her at the last second.

“Whoah there! What’s the rush?” The Maximal asked, hugging her. Airachnid looked around in search for her own bitlet. To her surprise, she couldn’t find her anywhere.

“Where’s Airazor?” After a second she turned to Flowspade and asked.

“WHAT?!” The black Predacon widened her optics, all extra limbs stiffening in the air. Suddenly, the femmies heard soft bumping and muffled whines coming from the nearest trash bin. Airachnid stood up and rushed to it, opening it. Inside she found her missing sparkling, crying and completely terrified.

“By the Primus!” The Predacon femmie quickly took her out. Airazor wrapped her wings around her and sniffed quietly in her shoulder plates.

“Shhhhh, it’s alright now. I’m here now.” Airachnid patted her on the back in order to calm her down.

“How did this even happen?” The orange Maximal looked down at Flowspade..

The purple bitlet pointed towards the lake.

“Why would anyone pull such cruel prank?” Her caretaker frowned.

“I don’t know, but once I’ll get my servos on them, I’ll make sure they won’t think about it again!” Airachnid hissed. Airazor seemed to calm down a bit.

Suddenly another sparkling walked to the femmies with worried expression. 

“N-no. I’m sorry.” Nighscream kneeled before them. “Are you lost?” The sparkling shook their head.

“Sparky!” Another voice could be heard from the distance. “Has anyone seen my Turbofox?”

The purple sparkling asked, looking up at the orange femmie.

“I don’t know, sweetspark.” Nightscream picked her up, offering the lost sparkling her servo. They accepted it. “But I think that’s enough park for all of us today.”

\-----

“Aaaaand, finished!” Whirl cheered, putting a repaired clock on the shelf, his single optic shined with pride. “You’re as good as new, my little ticking friend! You were a tough one to fix!” He chuckled to himself, looking from a window of his little shop. He expected a client to come and pick up the watch he was supposed to fix. He promised to be on time, but it seemed that he was running late. He spent whole two cycles waiting for him.

“Oh well.” The helicopterbot shrugged, activating the ‘Closed’ neon in front of the shop. Perhaps the owner would arrive the next day. He was about to return to his counter and turn on the shop’s security system when suddenly he heard a loud commotion behind him which made him jump and scream.

“What in the merciful Adaptus?!” A bot appeared out of nowhere and crashed on his shelf, making all the clocks fall on them. Whirl carefully stepped closer, claws raised in defense as he studied the mech.

“What the...” After a second, the one eyed mech stepped back, lowering his arms. He immediately recognized the client he’s been waiting for. “Mr Pipes?”

The bot stood up, groaning and grabbing his head. “Where-”

“What is the meaning of this?!” The clockmaker narrowed his optic, pointing at the shelf.

“M-my deepest apologies! I have no idea how this happened! I left my house earlier to do some things before going to you, but my groundbridge went crazy!”

“Crazy?”

“Yes! I appeared in at least five different locations BUT the ones I was heading to!”

“Well, I’m sorry then. But someone still has to clean up this mess and it definetly won’t be me!”

“W-would it be alright if I payed extra for the damage?”

“Absolutely not! Those clocks are priceless!” Whirl crossed his arms, going to the back of the shop. “I’ll get you a broom!”

Pipes sighed.

\-----

Skids walked towards the public groundbridge ring, dragging a big briefcase with himself.

“Make sure to take care of yourself, professor!” Nautica was right behind him, helping him with the second luggage. “After all, Praxus is a very crowded city!”

“I am fully aware of that!” The blue mech chuckled, putting the briefcase down to put a few credits in the paying slot and type in the coordinates. The ring activated itself and Skids’ portal appeared. “Thankfully, I like being around others!”

The purple femmie put the briefcase down as well. Skids turned to her and offered her his servo. She accepted it with a big smile on her faceplates. “I will never be able thank you enough for all your help, Nautica.”

“You don’t have to, sir! I’m just glad the operation went well!”

“Yes, I’m glad too! I was afraid I’ll be covered in rust for the rest of my life! Miss out so many classes and graduation events. Besides, I would miss you all!”

“I’m sure the rest of the class will like to hear that.”

Skids took both of his bagdages and headed to the groundbridge.

“Enjoy your sanatorium, professor!” The purple femmie waved her teacher goodbye. 

“I will! Make sure not to be too mean to the substitution teacher while I’m away!” Skids replied jokingly, disappearing in the portal.

After a few seconds, the blue mech was already on the other side. He stepped out of the groundbridge, but to his surprise, Praxus didn’t look like in the promoting datapads. Everything was so... quiet, and empty. It didn’t even look like a city at all. Just an empty piece on an asteroid...

“What in the world?”

Suddenly, the portal behind him closed and he had no way to return. Well, this wasn’t a good sign.

\-----

A lone groundbridge appeared at the bottom of the ocean, in a wreck of some broken construction. Shockwave stepped out of it, holding paralyzed Slipstream in his arms.

“AAAAGH-” Without any warning, a second portal appeared and Breakdown rushed out of it, painfully hitting the wall which bended to his might.

“Hey, scraphead!” Rumble, who was working nearby, shouted angrily. “Watch it! We just finished that wall!”

“Blame One Optic for it!” He furiously pointed at Shockwave, smashing his hammers together afterwards. “I told him that I wanted to finish the job!”

“I asked you to distract them, not make more mess.” The scientist transformed his gun arm into a syringe of some sort and jabbed Slipstream in the neck. After a few seconds, she aggresively gasped and fell from his grip. Shockwave kneeled and helped her back on her pedes.

“What?” The pilot looked around, studying the place. They weren’t in the small city anymore. Water seemed to be about everywhere, Soundwave and his Minicons were constructing a barrier separating them from the ocean, and if this wasn’t enough, everything was so dark. The only source of light were their optics and biolights. “What is this? Where are we?”

“You’re back at the Nemesis.” Ratbat replied, giving Soundwave a welder. “W-welcome back I guess!”

“We’re...” Her optics widened as she recognized the wreck of their formal battleship “Oh scrap.”

“Have you gone MAD?!” Suddenly, a loud shout could be heard from another room. The group of Decepticons glanced at each other before deciding to see what was happening, leaving working Soundwave behind.

On the ship’s bridge, Barricade was yelling at Starscream who was turned around to him with his head hanged. After a second, he noticed the others’ presence. The Decepticons entered the room so they could see the whole thing better.

“You kidnapped Optimus Prime and tried to invade Iacon?!”

“I was trying to get the Council’s attention, I am not stupid enough to attack a city without an army.” Starscream replied calmly.

“This isn’t any better! This is far from a change I was expecting!”

“I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it honestly, what exacly were you thinking we’d do when I was making my speech, or when I ordered you to retrieve a capsule full of plans and weapons?” The Seeker finally turned around, giving the ex enforcer an annoyed look.

“I-I don’t know, civil disobedience? Maybe a couple of strikes? But not-”

“Look around, Barricade!” Starscream violently gestured, snarling. “What part about our cause screams ‘civil’ to you?!”

“None! And I’m not happy in the slightest to be here! I’m here because you promised me cure for the sickness your Decepticons brought me!” The ex enforcer hissed, pointing at the group. More specifically, at Shockwave.

“Which reminds me,” Starscream squinted. “Do you have my package?” After a second, Barricade’s anger melted as he realized that he still haven’t given the Decepticon leader his belonging. He pulled out a pile of datapads from his subspace and gave it to Starscream.

“Where’s the rest?”

“Prowl caught me on the way. I had to hurry.”

“At least you did half of the job.” The Seeker walked to the shattered window and activated one of the datapads. For some reason, he wasn’t responding for a long time. He then activated another. And then another. And then another. His wings twitched.

“… you idiot.” Starscream turned around, facing Barricade with the most terrifying expression the ex enforcer had ever seen in his entire life.

“What?”

“You IDIOT!!!” The Seeker erupted, stomping closer to Barricade, making him step back. “You useless, blandering, simple minded piece of scrap metal! You had ONE JOB!”

“What?! What did I do?!” As soon as he asked, the ex prince shoved the datapad to his face.

“It’s your datapad!” He responded, straightening up. “I got it just like you-”

“YOU DELIVERED ME THE WRONG PACKAGE, YOU MORON!” Starscream activated it. It showed some pictures of a Cybertronian getting eaten by a giant space monster. A famous Cybertronian fairytale.

"Wh…” Barricade took the datapad and checked it a couple of times, optics filling pure horror. “Oh frag…” He whispered. “Oh frag, Starscream, I’m so so-”

“ALL OF MY PLANS ARE GONE!!! ALL OF MY IDEAS DEVELOPED THROUGH MILLIONS OF YEARS EXTNGUISHED!”

“There were millions of those! H-how was I suppsed to tell which was the right one in such short-”

“YOU DARE TO QUESTION MY ACTIONS WHEN YOU DIDN’T MANAGE TO DO A SIMPLE TASK I GAVE YOU! I TRUSTED YOU COULD DO THIS AND YOU BROUGHT ME... THIS!” The Seeker threw the datadap on the ground, smashing it. Barricade stepped back, completely terrified.

“You’ve ruined everything!…” Starscream hanged his head, vents hissing loudly. “All my plans and effort are gone...”

“So…does that means that I’m not getting back to normal anytime soon...?”

“… Take this bolt-brain away before I’ll decide to do something drastic.”

Breadkown walked closer to the ex enforcer and put his servo on his shoulder, gently pushing him back. Barricade’s expression shifted to shame as he looked at the Decepticon medic and after a second obeyed.

“You tricked us.” Slipstream snarled at Starscream, stepping towards her leader with crossed arms. “You tricked us into this insane plan of yours!”

Starscream didn’t respond. The pilot frowned.

“It was pretty hard to watch Megatron after this.” Breakdown rolled his optic on the side with visible unease.

“Yeah, speaking of that.” The Seeker femmie snapped her talons, smirking mockingly and pointing at Starscream. “Wasn’t he supposed to be dead, Starscream? After all, that’s what you told us. Taken by an enforcer with just one shot, hm? What else was a lie? That bright future you promised us so passionetly? Go on, tell us, oh almighty leader!”

After a long moment of silence the Seeker finally turned around and faced his crew. “I know I failed you this time, but that is a mistake I’m never going to make again.”

“Oh really? Why don’t you prove it? What’s your plan this time?”

“I don’t have one yet.”

Slipstream grimanced.

“I need more time.”

“I’m giving you a few cycles.” The femmie turned around, walking out of the room. “Then I’m gone. I’ll try to find some spaceship and return to Cybertron on my own.” She gave him one last glance before leaving.

After a quick consideration, Barricade decided to leave as well, completely avoiding Starscream’s faceplates.

The Seeker looked somewhat saddened at Breakdown.

“S-sorry Starscream.” The medic responded, judging by his voice, he was seriously uncomfortable. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to meet Megatron again. I’ll think if I want to stay or not.” He followed the others’ exaple and left, leaving Starscream and Shockwave behind.

“... And what about you?” The ex prince asked, turning to the Decepticon scientist. His wings dropped in resignation, already expecting what he’d say. “Do you wish to leave as well?”

Shockwave went silent. That was enough of an answer to him. Starscream returned to his window, looking down and shutting his optics in shame.

Without any warning, Shockwave moved, walking closer to the saddened leader and put his servo on his shoulder. “It takes more than one failure to destroy an empire. Even the one that’s still rising.” The surprised Sekeer rose his head, glancing at the other’s servo. He decided to turn around, facing the one eyed mech.

“My services as your scientist are not done yet. You still have the potential to get out of this situation. And when you do, you’ll show everyone who Starscream, the true leader of Cybertron is. Or, you can give up now and crumble under your own defeat. Decide which outcome you prefer. I’ll be waiting.” Shockwave let go of him, teleporting away.

Starscream stared at the empty spot where the mech was a second ago for a while before turning around and looking at the ocean. He thought for a moment, and then shook his helm. He straightened up and regained his calm posture.

“It takes more than one failure to destroy an empire.”

\-----

The military vehicles surrounded the group of Autobots, the humans around aimed their weapons at them. The younglings and Bumblebee stepped closer to Bulkhead, nervously looking around.

“Hide your bow.” Bumblebee told Hot Rod and hid his stinger.

“What?” The red Speedster looked at him, utterly confused.

“We don’t want to start another fight.” The youngling looked at his bow for a brief moment and then hid it behind his back. Suddenly, two giant trucks arrived. They looked big enough to transport multiple vehicles in them. Their cargos opened, revealing the pitch black darnkess.

“Get inside.” One of the soliders ordered. The group looked at each other as if asking if they should do it. Bumblebee was the first one who signaled that they should obey. Bulkhead nodded as well. Hot Rod and Moonracer followed the scout while the green mech carefully picked the fallen Megatron up and carried him to the vehicle. 

“... What’s that?” When the younglings were close enough, they spotted two red orbs shining in the corner of one of the transporters. When they suddenly flared, both of them stopped, hiding behind the yellow bot who gave the figure a glare. The soliders seemed to get impatient.

Suddenly the shadow noticed a familiar figure in Bulkhead’s arms.

“Megatron!” It came closer, revealing it’s small form. The green mech and yellow scout seemed to recognize it.

“Ravage?” Bulkhead asked, completely baffled.

“Who?” The sea green couldn’t hide her frown.

“What have you done to him?!” The figure, Ravage shouted, taking a defensive position.

Bulkhead stepped in and layed Megatron on the floor. Ravage immediately rushed towards him. He nudged the Decepticon in the arm a few times before turning to Bumblebee and hissing softly.

“He’s just paralyzed.” The scout assured. “He should be back in a few cycles.”

“How did you get here?” The green Autobot asked.

“Wait, you guys know each other?” Hot Rod rose his optical ridge, pointing two digits at all three of them.

Ravage lied next to Megatron, putting his head on his chest. Bumblebee couldn’t help but turn his head away, looking somewhat irritated. The younglings noticed that.

“That’s the limit! You three go to the other one!” Another human ordered.

“Uh... See you soon then?” Hot Rod shyly waved his servo to Bulkhead. Moonracer decided to do the same. With a little bit of hesitations, the green mech waved them back.

When they all were in the vehicles, the cargo’s doors closed, and the group felt the vehicles moving. There they were, going to the unknown, on a completely different planet with a completely different species.

Not quite the beginning they’ve been expecting.

\-----

The ride was long and rather awkward. Hot Rod and Moonracer were sitting next to each other, glancing at Bumblebee from time to time. The scout was sitting in front of them, facing the floor.

“... This is... such a weird experience.” Moonracer tried to break the first ice and start a conversation. “Getting transported in another vehicle like bitlets.”

“... Yeah, pretty weird.” Hot Rod decided to help her out. “And basically we’re getting transported in a none living truck, so... Sounds like a pretty cheap horror novel.”

“Speaking of, remember when Arcee bought this colourful sparkling cargo? She used to drive us around Iacon in it.” The sea green femmie couldn’t help but smile at the memory of her caretaker.

“Oh yeah! We called it StarSaber Mobile! It was so big that we used to invite other bitlets from the neighborhood to have a ride with us.” The red Speedster’s faceplates immediately lit up. 

“Hey, remember this one time when Rubble decided to sneak on the roof and admire the scenery from up there?”

“How could I not? I was the one helping him! Too bad we were crossing an Energon fountain at that time.”

“Arcee and Optimus couldn’t tell which one of us were their sparklings!” The younglings chuckled and looked at Bumblebee. Their amusement however quickly died down when they saw him not really reacting to their story.

“So…” Hot Rod decided to change the topic. “How are you?...”

“... Mr Bumblebee?” The sea green femmie called out. The scout seemed to be surprised at that. He rose his head and finally looked at the two.

“Yes?”

“I was asking how are you.” The red youngling repeated.

“Oh. I’m good. Also, you don’t have to call me ‘Mr’. Bumblebee is just fine.”

“Oh, okay then!” Moonracer smiled to him warmly. “Thanks for help back there, by the way!”

“I suppose I should thank you too. After all, I don’t think I’d manage to defeat Slipstream without you two.”

“In that case thank you and you’re welcome!”

“... Did she really threaten to take you hostage?” Hot Rod suddenly joined, turning to his amica with worried optics.

“Well,” She scratched her back wheels, looking away. “Yeah. She was pretty terrifying from up close. I guess I should’ve listened to you this time.”

“You both didn’t know about the potential danger,” Bumblebee assured, “it’s not your fault.”

“We did expect Megatron though.” The red Speedster’s spoiler rose slightly as he crossed his arms on his knee joints. “But he turned out to be, well, pretty different.”

“Yeah, what was that all about?” Moonracer shifted her legs, suppoting one of her arms with it. For some reason, Bumblebee became irritated again. “One second I see you, you try your hardest to capture him, the next, you’re actually defending him. What happened?”

“To my defence, I did try to capture him. I told him to surrender and everything, heck, even shot at him a few times! And he just kept, you know, I can’t even describe that. He’s so WEIRD! But like, in a good way? I dunno, he seems so positive about everything and I’m not really sure how to feel about him anymore.”

“He always does that.”

“Huh?”

“He always makes nice smile and acts silly whenever he meets someone new. But once he’s closer with soemone, his real self shines through.” Bumblebee spoke, somewhat angered. “You should be careful around him.”

The younglings exchanged a look.

“Really?” Hot Rod questioned.

“Yeah.” The scout supported his chin with his servo, looking at the closed cargo’s doors. “He’s fun and endearing until something goes not the way he wants and all the acts flies out of the window. Typical Decepticon if you ask me.”

“I... sorry,” Moonracer looked down. “I didn’t know you hated him so much.”

“I don’t...” The Elite bot sighed. “I don’t hate him, alright?”

“It sure sounds like you do.” The red Speedster tilted his head.

“I... listen, I don’t hate him. He’s far from a bad bot, but he’s definetly not fully good either. He’s done some horrible things in the past and Primus knows if he’s not planning them now too. Besides, this whole situation is mostly his fault anyway. If he didn’t escape Alchemor, none of us would be here right now. The Decepticons wouldn’t be on the lose, and I wouldn’t have lost communication with Cybertron-”

“Wait,” Hot Rod squinted.

“-what?” Moonracer rose her optical ridges.

“Wow, you guys are really well synchronized.”

“The Elites don’t know we’re here?” The femmie finished.

“... They most likely not.” Bumblebee’s expression softened. “Sorry.”

The younglings felt their sparks sinking in. It meant that they wouldn’t be returning home anytime soon, nor that they could count on getting help from the Elites. They were on their own after all.

“... Speaking of which,” The red youngling gained some courage to ask a question which kept bothering him for a while now. “Do you think you can tell us, I mean, what you can, what exacly happened a few days ago? With the ship, and... Optimus?”

“Optimus?” The question seemed to catch Bumblebee off guard. He rose his head and looked at the younglings. ”How do you know about the ship?”

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows about it by now.” Moonracer sheepishly joined.

“We saw it’s wreck near Iacon.”

“Wreck?” After some time, Bumblebee’s optics widened. “... When I came back online, all I saw was Slipstream threatening your friend.”

“It’s Moonracer, by the way.” The sea green femmie introduced herself quickly.

“Noted. I thought I was launched off the ship and Slipstream somehow ended up with me... What happened to Optimus? Is he...?”

“He’s alive,-” She started.

“-but really hurt.” He finished, quieter. He really couldn’t help but look away.

“Oh...” There was another long pause. “I know this propably won’t do much, but...” Bumblebee slid closer to the younglings, spreading his arms wide. Moonracer and Hot Rod considered it for a while but eventually leaned in, wrapping their arms around the minibot. The scout pulled them closer into a hug.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all this. You two are very brave, you know that? I promise that everything will end happily and you’ll return to your caretakers as soon as possible.” 

”... Promise?” Both of them asked. Bumblebee smiled.

"Promise.”

\-----

“He’s waking up!”

“Already?”

“Finally!”

Optimus slowly onlined his optics. The first thing he saw was a painfully bright white light flashing his vision from the above. He tried to sit down, but he felt a sudden touch on his shoulder. The Prime looked down and noticed a smaller orange helicopterbot with Rescue Bot insignia on his chest pulling him down. After a few seconds, he noticed his frame. It was covered with dents of every possible depth and life support cables.

“Careful, sir!” The Rescue Bot spoke. “Your condition improved, but you still shouldn’t leave your berth just yet!” The blue and red mech decided to stop himself.

“... How long was I out of commision?”

“A few weeks. I would consider this a medical miracle.”

Optimus looked around the room. A group of mechs was standing before his berth. The Prime managed to recognize Ultra Magnus, Perceptor and Alpha Trion. There was also a policebot with seemingly injured arm, holding a datapad.

“Can you leave us for a few clicks?” Ultra Magnus turned to the medic. The helicopterbot nodded. Before he left, he gave the High Protector a remote.

“If his condition worsened, please inform me immediately.”

Optimus grabbed his head, groaning. His memories were all over the place and he tried to peace them back together. Alpha Trion rushed to him and put his servo on his shoulder with worried expression.

“Those were the worst weeks of my life, period! I rushed out of the Hall of Records as soon as I heard you were getting better! How are you feeling?”

“... Like Metroplex decided to make a dance floor out of my chassis.” Optimus had to reset his optics a couple of times so his vision could improve.

“What happened? Ultra Magnus wouldn’t tell me, no matter how long or loud I yelled at him!” 

“He’s not kidding.” The detective interrupted. “Medbay’s personel visited this room four times by now.”

“Which forces me to repeat the same thing again, this is not a personal matter, Alpha Trion.” Ultra Magnus went closer as well, folding his arms behind his back. “And I’m afraid it’s still not personal enough for you to stay with us during this conversation.”

“Ultra Magnus,” The old Archivist turned to face the bigger mech, snarling. “you don’t expect me to just-”

“Trion.” Optimus grabbed his wrist, gaining back his attention. He gave him soft, pleading optics as he requested:

“Leave, please.” Alpha Trion went silent before letting out a huff.

“Alright.” He stood up and headed to the exit.

“But don’t expect me to be happy about it!” He took one last glance at the Prime before leaving the room. Ultra Magnus slid closer a nearby chair, letting himself sit next to the red and blue mech. The Prime sat back on the berth, shifting his position so he could see him better.

“Sir,” The High Protector started. “do you remember what happened?”

“I...” Opitmus let out a heavy cloud of steam, offlining his optics and focusing on his memories. “The Alchemor. The battleship. Starscream.” After a second he opened them again, he indeed looked rather weak. “Did anyone got hurt?”

“No.” The scarred mech shook his helm. “Iacon is safe.” The blue and red mech fell his back on the berth, letting out a relieved vent.

“... Were the Decepticons captured?”

Perceptor glanced at Prowl, who was typing something on his datapad. The detective saw how the policebot clenched his digits on it when the question was asked.

“No. But I believe this is a conversation for another time, when you’re feeling better-”

“I’m alright. Continue.”

“But sir-”

“That’s an order.” Optimus frowned seriously, demanding answers. Ultra Magnus gave up his fight.

“... After the incident, strange things started happening around Cybertron.”

“Such as?”

“We received a couple of raports related to the strange groundbridge activities. We also got cases of multiple missing Cybertronians. According to witnesses, groundbridges stopped working as they should.”

“Megatron...” The Prime thought loudly. Magnus nodded.

“We were forced to temporary close all the groundbridge networks around the whole planet. We’re still observing the siuation.”

“Do you have a list of how many people are missing?”

“I’m still working on it, sir.” Perceptor bounced on his pedes, folding his arms behind his back. “I’m almost done.”

“Good. Once I’ll call Hot Rod and make sure that he found the Matrix, I’ll look it over.”

The room went silent. Optimus already could sense that something was wrong.

“Commander?” He asked, looking at how the High Protector froze in place, looking absolutely terrified.

“... I’ll scan the list on the datapad.” The detective said, leaving the room. Prowl glanced at him, murmuring “Coward.” under his breath.

“Commander.” The Prime repeated, slowly losing his patience. “What happened?”

“... I’m sorry.” The scarred mech said silently.

Optimus was already preparing himself to receive horrible news. Nothing however could prepare him for what he learned next.

\-----

After what seemed to be forever, the vehicles transporting the group of Cybertronians stopped. 

“Starscream was responsible for this?” Bulkhead and Ravage spent the whole ride exchanging informations about the latest incidents. “I mean, he always seemed like someone who would kill for power, but I thought he was close with Megatron.”

“We thought so too.” Ravage waved his tail, looking at the laying Megatron. “I’d surely love to see everyone’s faces when they realized that they’ve been tricked.”

“... How did he took it?” The green mech followed his gaze.

“Poorly. He really believed that Starscream would help him.” The Cassette looked down with thoughtful expression. “I don’t understand why Soundwave and the rest of my siblings decided to follow him after everything...”

“Feeling in dept, perhaps?” Bulkhead considered. “That's what he said.” Ravage sighed. "But I guess it doesn’t matter now. Not as long as we’re being hold captive-”

Suddenly Megatron rose from the ground and gasped sharply.

“Megatron!” Ravage widened his optics, stepping back.

“By the Allspark, I haven’t felt this numb since yesterday!” It took him a while but the Decepticon finally recovered and looked around, seeing startled Bulkhead pinned to the wall with widened optics.

“… Hi!” He cheerfully greeted, sitting. “What did I miss?”

Suddenly, he noticed his Minicon friend on his other side and smiled.

“RAVAGE! Where were you? I thought you stayed on Cybertron!”

"I thought the same about you until I saw you on a broadcast!" The Cassette decided to walk closer, letting Megatron pick him up.

“What?!” Bulkhead seemed to be shocked to say the least. “And you didn’t mention that before, because...?!”

“Did you ask before?”

"I was broadcasted?"

“World-wide. I was in the flooding city called Venice when it happened.”

“You were in a what?” The rebel chuckled, raising his optical ridges. The retired engineer facepalmed, groaning.

Without any warning, the cargo’s doors opened. The mechs paused and glanced at the outside area they were transported to. Humans were already there, making sure that they weren’t making any suspicious movements.

“Oh, so they’re humans. Hi there! I’m-” Megatron said, trying to stand up. A sudden short circuit made him shout and he almost fell on Ravage. The green Autobot caught him at the last second.

“Megatron? What’s wrong?” He asked.

“I... I think I lost feeling in my legs.” The Decepticon said, looking somewhat apologetically at the retired engineer. Bulkhead sighed.

“Alright. Once we’re inside, I’ll see what’s seems to be the problem.” He wrapped the taller bot’s arm around himself and helped him leave the cargo.

“You better not drop him.” The Minicon warned, walking right behind them.

“Maybe you’d like to help?” Bulkhead turned his head and gave him a side eye.

“You know I can’t!”

As they walked forward, they noticed that the rest of the group was already outside as well. Quickening their pace, they joined them as soon as possible.

“Hi!” Hot Rod greeted, welcoming them back.

“What happened to him?” Moonracer asked, glancing at Megatron who smiled awkwardly.

“His injuries prevent him from moving.” Bulkhead explained. 

“They started preventing him just now?” The red youngling gave them a disbelieved look.

“Sometimes I’m surprising even myself.” The rebel grinned smugly.

“Alright, there you are!” One of the humans pointed forward, giving others green light to move. There was a single building in front of them, it looked like a hangar of some sort. The humans commanded them to start walking.

“Sooo, where are we exacly?” Megatron looked around, studying his surroundings.

“It looks like a prison.” The sea green femmie replied, optics never leaving the humans.

“Wait, are we being arrested?” Hot Rod couldn’t help but narrow his optics.

“Uhh… yeah. Sorry, not interested. Bulk,” The rebel nudged the green Autobot’s helm. “you can let go now, I’ll try to walk on my own.”

“And see you torture yourself further?” Bulkhead frowned, shaking his head. “No.”

“Bulk, seriously.” The Decepticon sounded more desperate now. He tried to push himself off the Autobot, fruitlessly. “I’ll be fine, just. Let go.”

“Why are you so insistent now?” Moonracer looked back at him, giving him a questioning glance. “You weren’t like that a klick ago.”

“I just... this place is... I don’t want to be here, alright? I just don’t!”

“Don’t worry, Megatron.” The Minicon climbed his way up to Megatron, making the retired engineer let out a sound of complaint. “I’m still with you.”

“You know, I would very much appreciate if you didn’t crash my back plating. I still need it for various reasons!”

Ravage rolled his optics and moved on Megatron’s back. The rebel couldn’t help but give him a soft appreciative smile and bump his helm against his.

\-----

The group went inside, studying the place. The buillding indeed was a hangar, but instead of vehicles, the only thing found there were some kind of small areas separated from one another. Inside of each one were different items placed around. They almost looked like rooms in a house.

“That’s... huh.” Bumblebee couldn’t help but grimance. “To be honest, I was expecting a smelting pool.” The younglings glanced at him with widened optics.

“Oh...” Megatron looked around, calming down. “That’s... definetly an improvement from my previous cell.” The retired engineer turned to the humans.

“I need to patch him up.” He said. Someone gave him directions to one of the areas and he went there with Megatron and Ravage, leaving the rest of the group behind.

“So, uh...” Hot Rod awkwardly clapped his servos. “What exacly are we doing in here?”

“You wait for the further instructions.” The solider told him, activating cameras around the building. “And this time you don’t run away. Unless you want to be taken down of course.”

“Oh... yeah, certainly wouldn’t like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to goooo!~ (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


	18. Not quite the beginning we've been expecting part 2

Megatron layed on the ground while Bulkhead was treating his injuries. Ravage sat on the counter behind them, making sure that the rebel wasn’t in too much pain. The green Autobot was no medic, but at the very least knew how to help a wounded mech.

“On a scale from one to ten, how much does it hurt here?” He asked before poking the rebel’s burned side. Megatron immediately backed off from his touch.

“Solid eleven!” He replied, grunting his denta and clenching his fist.

“Careful there!” The Minicon hissed, arching his back. “He suffered enough already!”

“Ravage, it’s alright.” The rebel ex vented, feeling the pain fading away. “You really don’t have to be here and watch it.”

“I want to. Just in case.” The Cassette posture slightly relaxed, optics still focusing on the laying mech. Bulkhead got annoyed by him pretty fast.

“Burnt to crisp. Thankfully, only from the outside.” The green mech hummed, getting his digit away. “We have to get rid of this part to see how much armor you’d lost. Ravage, can you look around and see if we have something to scratch it off with?”

“Like what?”

“Like a spatula perhaps. I can’t remove the damaged metal with my bare servos.”

The Casette nodded, jumping on the ground. “I’ll be back soon so better don’t try anything suspicious.” He said before leaving the room. After a second, Bulkhead pulled out a scalpel from his subspace and turned back to face Megatron. The Decepticon was surprised at first but quickly understood what happened.

“You just wanted him to get out, didn’t you?” The retired engineer smirked, making the rebel laugh. “Smart!”

“Thank you. Alright, back to you. I think it’s better if we turn your pain receptors off.”

“Noted, and done.”

“Good.” Bulkhead started by removing rubble and smaller metal pieces that were hanging out of his side. When he couldn’t pick up any more, he started working with his scalpel. Megatron looked in another direction, waiting for him to finish. Everything was fine until the green Autobot accidentally brushed his servo against the surface of Megatron’s sparkchamber.

“OW!” The rebel suddenly reacted, grabbing Bulkhead’s arm and sitting, startling the other mech.

“You said you turned it off!”

“I did!” The Decepticon covered his chest, turning away.

The retired engineer paused fot a second. If a bot could felt pain even after shutting down their sensors, it could’ve meant only one thing. “Is there something wrong with your spark?” 

Megatron went silent.

“... There is, isn’t it?”

“I... I don’t know. I fear it might be. Back in the Alchemor, it seemed to be a big problem whenever my spark started acting different than usual, so...”

“No one told you what was going on?” Bulkhead raised his optical ridge.The rebel gently shook his helm. The Autobot’s expression softened. “... Do you think I can see it?”

Megatron grew somewhat hesitant. He didn’t know if the other could really help him, but on the other side, it would’nt hurt to try, would it?

After some time, the Decepticon looked at Bulkhead and nodded. The green mech lowered himself on one knee, turning on his front lights. After a few seconds, the rebel opened his sparkchamber, revealing his spark. The retired engineer looked it over a few times before widening his optics in pure horror. Unfortunately, Megatron noticed that.

“Bulkhead?” There was no answer. “Bulkhead. W-what’s happening? What’s wrong with my spark?”

“It’s...” The retired engineer looked around and spotted a mirror nearby. He stood up and walked over to pick it up. When he returned to Megatron, he waited for some time before turning it around and revealing the problem.

“What is...?” The Decepticon had to narrow his optics and lean closer to see, but when he finally catched on, it hit him hard. Really, really hard.

His spark was completely covered by melted metal. The light of his spark was barely visible, and if this wasn’t enough, it seemed like some of the pieces were damaging it’s structure.

“What...”

“How did this happen?”

“I don’t know?! I don’t remember anything happening at the Alchemor that would’ve resolved into th...” Suddenly, the rebel remembered something.

“Megatron?”

“Shockwave.” The Decepticon murmured. “The experiment.”

“Experiment?”

“... Oookay, so-” Megatron tried to mask his shock with a forced nervous grin. “You see, there was a time when me and Shockwave were lab partners. You may have heard of it once or twice.”

“No. I’ve never heard of it.” Bulkhead couldn’t help but frown slightly. He wasn’t angry, just... confused.

“Oh. Well, that would make sense too. It was right after, you know, Iacon, me, the Decepticons, Sentinel and crrch!” He paused to make a stabbing in the chest gesture. “And you may know that most of my followers were captured that day except me, right?”

“Right?”

“It’s possible that I haven’t taken it well back then. I mean, it was kiiiinda my fault. Perhaps I should’ve planned it better, maybe I shouldn’t have told as many people as I did, maybe I could’ve done something much better as a leader, and-”

“Megatron, get to the point.”

“Right! Right! So I tried to make up for it and get them out. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how and Shockwave was working on something. I agreed to help him develop the SpaceBridge technology, and in return, he promised to help me.” It didn’t take Bulkhead long to piece most of the situation together. His optics widened again.

“No...” The green mech said in a low voice. “You didn’t-”

“So a couple of tests were made, side projects checked, preparations passed, and we were ready to make our first attempt to create the first ever SpaceBridge!”

“Megatron! The interplanetary form of groundbridge is NOT something to be messed with! A standard groundbridge can cause a lot of damage, but the one capable of transporting Cybertronians from one end of the galaxy to another guarantees a very painful and very stupid death!”

“Yes, I know that now! We were ready to test it, and uh... something went wrong.” Megatron glanced at his chest, covering the space outside of his sparkchamber with his servo. “Very wrong.”

“Dear Allspark...” Bulkhead murmured.

“Yes. I know.”

“So you were causing all those strange activities around.”

“I suppose.” The rebel looked up at the green mech. “Do you think you can fix it?”

“I can try, but I can’t promise that I’ll be much of a help.” Bulkhead pulled out a pair of goggles from his subspace and placed them on his optics, activating them. “Now, don’t move.”

Megatron stiffened. The retired engineer put a ring on his wrist which transformed his servo into a pair of tweezers. He moved them closer and carefully started removing the melted scrap. The rebel twitched or hissed from time to time, but overall tried to control himself.

“How big was the explosion?” Bulkhead suddenly asked, guessing what happened.

“Pretty big, I think. So big that the enforcers managed to notice our secret base from the distance. Why?”

“I’m surprised your spark is still in one piece. Usually when a reaction occurs, the ammount of released energy is... Frag, I spoke too soon.”

“Hm?”

Bulkhead shook his helm, stepping back. He took his goggles off and ex vented heavily, looking down sadly. “I can’t do anything.”

“What?” Megatron felt his spark dropping.

“Your spark... is broken, as I suspected.” The green Autobot picked up the mirror and pointed at the spark which reflected in the mirror in a way the rebel could see it. “It’s core structure got desintegrated during the explosion. The missing bits were replaced by the Spacebridge’s own. Those are the parts responsible for sending commands, and the ones activating it. It’s covering the lines leading to your brain. Your mind replaces it’s control centre. Whenever your spark sends a command, it activates the system. That’s why you can teleport.”

“Th... there has to be a way to get rid of it.” The rebel shook his head in denial.

“Megatron, I can’t. It’s not possible.”

“It almost killed me!” The Decepticon placed his servos on the sides of Bulkhead’s arms, making him put down the mirror. “You know groundbridges better than anyone else, I know you do! Can’t you do at least something so it won’t happen again?”

“I... I don’t know how! As long as I live, I’ve never seen anything like that!” There was a long pause between them, then Bulkhead placed his servo on the rebel’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.” Megatron let go and hid his sparkchamber, covering his broken spark. His optics froze on it, unable to let go.

“... Am I going to die?”

“Like I said, I don’t know. I need more informations, and I’m not a medic... All I can say now is that you need those parts to keep your spark attached.”

The rebel went completely silent. The retired engineer’s expression grew more sympathetic.

“You know, if you want me to leave you alone for some time, that’s-”

“No.” The Decepticon suddenly interrupted him, straightening up. Bulkhead couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“What?”

“No. No, no, no and once again, no.” Megatron suddenly stood up. The Autobot wanted to push him back down, but he stepped away.

“Megatron, listen. I know you’re in shock, but please, be careful.”

“No, now I want YOU to listen, Bulkhead. I didn’t spend- how long was it again?”

“Almost five million years.”

“Almost five million years in isolation to now worry about something like that!” He paused to give the other a disbelieved glance. “Seriously five million?” Bulkhead nodded.

“Wow, do I feel old. Anyway, I don’t want this. I don’t want this situation to be pictured as a tragedy. I mean, I’m still alive. And I’m free!” His determined expression returned to him in it’s full glory. “And this is far from my end! In a spam of just two days I’ve been shot from my own fusion canon, almost melted alive, and got to see how it feels to have my atoms away from my body for a few clicks! If all those things didn’t kill me, I doupt anything else will!”

“But... you’ve what?!-” Bulkhead tried to speak, but the rebel turned to him, optics suddenly softening.

“Bulk, can you promise me that you won’t tell about it to anyone else? I don’t want them to worry.”

“That won’t solve the problem and you know it.”

“I know, but worrying won’t either. Let’s make a deal, alright? You won’t tell anyone about it, BUT! I’m going to inform you whenever something bad will start happening. Every time, you’ll be the first one to know. In fact, I think it’s a perfect opportunity to continue our Spacebridge development! If you ask me, I think we should have an alternative option if the return home would turn out to be more complicated that it was supposed to be. Can you do that for me?” Megatron offered him his servo with a smile. Bulkhead had to think for some time, but eventually accepted it.

“... If something happens, I want to see you around me in a click.” Bulkhead looked up with a serious frown, pointing his digit at the rebel.

“Immediately!” Megatron grinned, raising his free servo up.

“Even faster! After you’ll feel at least remotely less alright than usual.”

“Trust me, it’s very easy to tell.”

“I’m taking your word for it, so you better not waste it.”

“I will, don’t worry! Oh and, Bulkhead?”

“Yes?”

After a second the rebel smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

That caught Bulkhead off guard. Eventually he huffed, releasing Megatron’s servo. “Alright. Sure. Whatever makes you comfortable. Now, about your side.”

“Oh!” The Decepticon chuckled, glancing down at his partly finished hip. “Of course! How did I even forget about it?”

“Life threatening situations have that effect on people I guess.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much I missed your sparkling sense of humor?”

“No.”

“I should have.”

\-----

“What do you think is taking them so long?” Hot Rod asked. The younglings were sitting next to each other against the wall while Bumblebee layed before them with offlined optics.

“That side did look rather nasty.” Moonracer reminded, crossing her legs. “I’m not sure why, but I get a feeling that Bulkhead seems pretty close with Megatron.”

“Well, you’re not that far from the truth. Bulkhead was a part of Megatron’s rebelion after all.” The scout replied. He immediately gained the younglings’ attention.

“Bulkhead was...” She started.

“THAT rebelion?” He finished, disbelieving. “Seriously?”

The yellow scout onlined his optics and turned his head to them. “He never told you about it?”

“No?” Hot Rod shook his head, snorting. “Our Bulkhead was a rebel? I thought he hated mass protests.”

“And how do you know all this stuff?” Moonracer joined. “Were... were you a part of it too?”

Bumblebee just squinted. “You seriously don’t know?”

Both of the shook their heads.

“... Huh.” After a second, the scout shifted on his other side, turning away from the younglings. “If your caretakers didn’t tell you, I don’t see why I should do it then.”

“What?!” They couldn’t help but feel extremely dissapointed.

“Come on!” He protested.

“You started talking about it yourself!” She complained.

“That was before I learned it wasn’t allowed.” The scout just kept playing tough. 

“We promise we won’t tell anyone! What happened back there?” Hot Rod dragged further.

“Nnnope!” Bumblebee grinned, starting to ignore the two. Hot Rod and Moonracer exchanged a look and suddenly smirked.

After a second, the yellow bot felt two frames pressing against his back. He turned his head back, seeing the younglings laying on him.

“Beeeeeeeee.” The red mechling whined. “Why are you so mean, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?”

“Beeeeeeeeeee.” The sea green femling joined, pretending to pout. “We wanna knooooooooow!”

This made the yellow bot chuckle. “What are you two doing???”

“We want to know what you’re hiding from uuuuuus!...”

“You wouldn’t want to say ‘No’ to those faces, would yooou?” Moonracer asked, making with Hot Rod big puppy optics.

“Oh NO!” Bumblebee laughed, trying to cover their faceplates with his servos. “I must resist the FACES!”

“The facephs are ihhesistabwle!” The red Speedster tried to speak with the mech’s servo on his mouth, grin growing bigger.

“We’re not letting you go until you tell us!” Meanwhile Moonracer managed to escape his grip and wrap her arms around him, giggling.

“No! I’ve been surrounded!” The yellow minibot laughed harder as he tried to crawl away from the two younglings. “Retreat! RETREAT!”

“He’s trying to get away!” Hot Rod cackled, attaching himself to the scout’s back, trying to avoid his doorwings.

“I won’t go down without a fight!” Bumblebee wasn’t giving up and bravely tried to fight off the threat.

Suddenly, the red Speedster noticed something which made his laughter die down and stop. Bumblebee had a really big scar on his neck. It looked quite serious and old, it seemed deep enough to be visible from up close. He let his guard down, mind drifting away for a while. Without any warning, he was brought back to the reality when the scout managed to push him off himself.

“Oof!” Hot Rod fell on his back, but instead of standing up, he just stayed on the ground, while Moonracer and Bumblebee continued playing. His expression grew throughfull, worried even. Who could’ve done such thing?

“What is happening in here?!” Suddenly the group stopped and turned around to face Bulkhead. Megatron was right behind him.

“Bulk, HELP!” Bumblebee begged through tears, reaching his servo towards him. “I’m being attacked!”

Megatron covered his faceplates, hiding his growing smirk. The green mech sighed. “Moonracer, get off him this instant!”

Moonracer obeyed, letting the yellow bot go and returning to her amica who sat down.

“Quite energetic duo, I give them that.” The scout let out a relieved sigh, sitting down. The sea green femling smiled widely. 

“Hey, uh, Bee?” Hot Rod found some courage to look up and ask.

“Yeah?” The scout turned to him, still quite amused after the playful attack. 

The youngling was meaning to ask about the scar, but seeing Megatron suddenly entering the room made him... anxious. The Decepticon was looking at him, monitoring every movement as if waiting to attack. Again, he assured that he was no threat, but...

“... What were we asking about again?” The red youngling decided not to risk it. There had to be a reason why Bumblebee was so skeptical towards Megatron, right? And he expected that scar to do something with it.

“I... I don’t remember honestly either.” The scout shrugged. “I guess it wasn’t important.”

“Yeah,” Hot Rod forced himself to smile. “I guess it wasn’t either.”

“Is everything alright?” Moonracer asked, glancing at the bigger mech. Metal on his side was scraped and most of it appeared to be missing.

“Absolutely!” The rebel beamed with as much positivity as before. “I need a new armor, but I’ll be fine! By the way, I believe we haven’t met before.”

“Oh, yeah. I kind of met you when you were in stasis, so...”

“I can assure you that I’m even more entertaining while awake.” The mech leaned closer, offering her his servo. “Megatron.”

“Moonracer.” She accepted it with a smile.

“Nice grip! You guys better watch out,” He commented, looking around to face all the present Autobots. His smile revealed tips of his sharp denta. “she has a potential to be a killer!” The sea green femmie chuckled at that.

“Honestly, I was expetcing you to be much less sociable than that.” She admitted, letting go.

“It’s fine. I like proving people wrong.” After a second he stood up, crossing his arms. Hot Rod glanced at Bumblebee who looked away, scowling.

“Have you seen Ravage?” The rebel gazed around the room in search for the Minicon.

“A few times.” Moonracer replied. “He couldn’t decide which object should he pick for whatever reason.”

Megatron couldn’t help but snort and bump Bulkhead in the arm. “Primus, Bulkhead, we’re absolutely horrible!” The retired engineer just smirked. “I should tell him.”

“Once you see him, sure. But when I’m far, far away from you.”

Hot Rod and Moonracer observed in fascination how well Bulkhead seemed to get along with the Decepticon leader. For some reason it bothered Hot Rod a bit.

“Bulk, what about you?” He asked his watcher who was still covered in dents.

“Like I said, I’ll live. I’ll fix myself when they’ll allow us to the nearest mechanic. How about you?”

“I’m good.” The youngling nodded.

“Same.” The sea green femmie joined. Bumblebee waved his servo in confirmation as well.

“Sooo, what are we supposed to do now?”

Suddenly, the group heard soft tapping against the metal floor behind them. They turned around and saw a human approaching. This one seemed different than the ones surrounding the building. Instead of a military clothing, she had a black smoking suit and hills. Her dark brown hair was tied up in a short ponytail. She wore dark sunglasses and carried a bag of some sort.

The human lady stopped before them and pulled out something from a bag.

“Names.” She requested, opening a tiny datapad look alike with a stick. “You?”

She pointed at Hot Rod who got startled by that.

“Uh…” He quickly glanced at his friends and then awkwardly turned back to the lady. “Hot Rod?” The woman typed his answer down and pointed at another Cybertronian.

“Moonracer.” The femling quickly answered. Then she pointed again.

“Bumblebee.” The scout replied, standing up.

“... Bulkhead.” The retired engineer said, a little bit hesitant. “And Ravage in somewhere around too.”

“Just your usual rebel looking for ways to change the world for the better.” That was the answer the human was going to get from Megatron. She looked up and rose her eyebrow at him.

“Proffenional privacy.” He whispered to the younglings, grinning.

“Megatron.” Bumblebee barked. The woman caught that.

“My name is Miranda Dryden.” When the human lady finished taking names, she introduced herself, straightening up. “I’ve been assigned to be your liaison with the outside world.”

Bulkhead and the younglings looked at each other. Ms Miranda must’ve been the one captain Smith was talking about.

“My superiors informed me about your little rampage in Cardiff and I feel the need to inform you that no behavior like that will be tolerated. I hope you understand that.”

“It wasn’t our fault.” Bumblebee clarified.

“I heard better excuses at kindergarden.” Miranda commented, hiding her device and crossing her arms. “From now on, you’re going to be on a short leash. For starters it means that you can leave the walls of this building only when given a permission. You also can’t purchase things on your own without our approval and clarification that it’s not going to be used against us.”

“What about the things I requested?” Bulkhead asked. She turned to him, squinting behind her glasses in questionable manner.

“Request?”

“... Frag.”

“But...-” Moonracer started, standing up.

“-we need to return home!” Hot Rod finished, both younglings feeling horribly deceived.

“That’s too bad. Realistically seeing, you won’t get permission to start any projects on your own anytime soon. Not until we’ll find the rest of your bunch at least.”

“The Decepticons aren’t with us.” Bulkhead joined, grimancing. “They’re criminals!”

“Criminals you brought on our planet against our will.” 

“Yeah, but... we can fix that!” The red Speedster finally got back on his pedes as well, stepping closer to the woman who took a few steps back to keep the safe distance. “We can fix all of that!” Bulkhead wanted to say something, but the human started again.

“And you will. You already proven that your kind is incredibly strong and well advanced, not to mention much more techologically developed. You should be thankful my superiors didn’t decide to involve you in any of our human operations as long as they won’t include your kind.”

“That’s not fair!” The youngling protested, lowering himself to her eye level. Ms Miranda just took off her glasses and looked directly in Hot Rod’s optics. She was dead serious.

“Your little group endangered many of people today. Far too many. During those few days you showed us nothing but the fact that you can’t be trusted on your own. We’re not going to risk our citizens so you can prove your point.”

“But-”

“You’re not on your planet anymore.” She frowned, pointing with her glasses at the rest of the group to include them as well. “You’re on ours. And we make the rules around. You won’t accept that the easy way, we’ll raise our standards. Unless you’ll prove us that you ARE trustworthy, you’re not going anywhere. Am I clear?”

Hot Rod grew silent. After some time, agent Miranda turned around, walking towards the exit. “If you’ll need anything from the outside, there’s a phone next to the oil area. We’ll accept only basic requests like groceries or whatever aletnatives you robots have.”

Hot Rod returned on his pedes, grabbing his arm and watching the lady leave. Megatron looked around and noticed that all Autobots looked away in guilt.

“H-hey.” He decided to walk before them and smile. “I know things look bad right now, but they can always get better! Humans don’t know us that well yet, but we can prove them that we’re not a threat. We just have to wait for the storm to cool down and try again with everything. As long as we’ll stick together, things WILL get better!”

They were listening to him until they noticed something that made their optics widen.

“I know we just met and everything, we’re confused and pretty sad, but eventually it’ll all pass. No beginning is ever easy and I’m more than certain that-”

“Megatron?” Moonracer interrupted him.

“Yes, sweetspark?”

“What is that?” She pointed behind him. The rebel rose an optical ridge and turned around. He gasped when he saw something he’s been hoping not to see for a good while. A small groundbridge opened behind him. Water was pouring out of it along with rocks and wet sand. It unexpectedly closed after a second.

“Was that a groundbridge?” Bumblebee asked.

“I...” Megatron turned around. The Autobots noticed that his spark was emitting some kind of strange visible heat. Bulkhead looked like he was about to have a spark attack. The rebel quickly covered his core with his servos.

Hot Rod narrowed his optics, trying to piece things together. “...You created all those groundbridges.” Megatron’s spark dropped. Again. This time however, it felt much worse than the last time.

“What?!” Moonracer squealed, glancing at her amica very confused. The red youngling frowned, stepping closer.

“You were on that ship! You and Optimus and those guys... That explosion,” The sea green youngling gasped as a quick realization hit her. “you did it!”

“Hot Rod.” Bulkhead tried to step closer to the youngling, but he was stopped by Bumblebee.

“Let the kids finish.” He said in a low voice, doorwings twitching.

“You kidnapped Optimus!” Hot Rod was fully shouting now, spoiler shaking from anger. “You tried to do something by destroying the ship and that’s how we ended up in here!”

“Wh- No!” Megatron felt absolutely baffled by those accusations. “This isn’t what happened at all! Yes, I was on that ship, but the explosion was an accident! I didn’t know what was happening to me and- and I literally got there at the last click! Ravage can confirm that! Wherever he is right now...”

“Bee?” Hot Rod turned around and looked at Bumblebee. “Is that true?”

“All I remember is a bunch of creeps in the middle of a hill, dragging Optimus and a friend of mine to the warship. You know Megs, the ones insanely loyal to you. I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds really suspicious.” The rebel’s expression saddened for a brief second when Bumblebee started suspecting him.

“Alright, yes, that does sound awfully suspicious, but I’m completely innocent! I’m just as much of a victim as all of you!”

“... Are you?” The red Speedster clenched his fist, grunting his denta. “What about Optimus? Are you as much of a victim as he is?”

“Optimus?” Megatron grimanced. “What about him? I haven’t seen him ever since I puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-” He wanted to finish his sentence, but seeing how Hot Rod’s expression only worsened made him rethink it. “-uuuuuuuu-litely explained to him a teeny tiny thing that came up between us and then we went in our separated paths in peace!”

“Yeah, alright. That totally didn’t sound suspicious as well.” Moonracer walked closer, crossing her arms and glowering at him.

“Kids, that’s enough.” Bulkhead warned calmly. The Decepticon took a deep in vent, calming himself.

“Listen, I know you’re very tired and very confused right now and that’s completely understandable. I can explain everything once all negative emotions are toned down, alright? I’m sure then everything will make sense.”

“And why should we believe you?” It was Hot Rod who asked that question. Bumblebee, Moonracer, and Megatron were all taken-aback by that.

“... Hot Rod,” The rebel stepped a bit closer, making the younglings back off. It was a torture to watch how quickly their trust was lost. “I’m sorry. For everything that happened to you today. To both of you. You have all rights to be mad and I can’t blame you either. I want you to understand that we’re not enemies.”

“You’ve been in the Alchemor, that’s where all our enemies are from!”

“Me staying there was one big misunderstanding.”

“That’s why you decided to break out and destroy everything close to me on the way?!”

“What was I supposed to do?! Stay in the Alchemor for the rest of my life?!”

“YES! I WISH YOU RUSTED THERE!” Hot Rod roared, finally losing his temper. Bulkhead widened his optics. Megatron fell silent.

After a second, the youngling transformed and drove from them towards the end of the hangar. The rebel reached his servo towards him, but the red Speedster was already too far for him to reach.

“JERK!” Moonracer yelled before storming off as well.

“...Tsk.” Bumblebee snarled, following them, leaving Bulkhead alone with Megatron. The green Autobot hesitated a bit, but tried to walk to the rebel and put his servo on his shoulder. To his surprise, Megatron stopped him.

“They need you more right now.” He said. Bulkhead just looked very concerned at him. “I’m fine.” The rebel gave him an assuring smile. The retired engineer finally sighed and nodded, then turned around and followed the group. When he was away, Megatron’s smile immediately dropped and he looked down in shame.

“Got it!” Suddenly Ravage returned, carrying a perfectly polished metal pole wrapped around his long tail. “Everything around here is awfully dirty and I had to make sure it was fit for the removal of...” The Minicon stopped when he noticed the rebel’s expression which made him worried.

“Did... did something happen?” 

“... Yeah.” Megatron replied quietly. “I messed everything up, did I not?”

Ravage saddened. He let go of the pole and walked closer, nudging the rebel’s pede. Megatron glanced at him and after a second decided to kneel. Ravage pressed his head against the rebel’s shoulder, paws landing behind his back. The ex Decepticon leader couldn’t help but return the gesture, pulling the Cassette into a hug, bringing his foredead against his head.

Ravage closed his optics and started purring in hope to make the other feel slightly better.

“Thank you for being with me in this...” Megatron slightly tightened his grip, finding comfort and graditude in the Minicon’s presence.

“You don’t have to thank me.” His friend assured. “Everything is going to be alright, you’ll see.”

“… yeah.” Megatron curled his lipplates into a faint smile.

“Everything is going to be alright. I’ll make sure it will.”

\-----  
“No…” At last, Optimus was given the complete list of all missing Cybertronians around the planet. At the time he began looking through it, the room fell awfully silent. After some time, the Prime understood what this was all about. 

As he searched through the designations, to his horror, he found his Hot Rod’s among them.

“No… no, this can’t be true.” His frame began shaking, spark filling deep painfull sorrow. “I saw him not that long ago... He was with me... I gave him a lesson and we went racing together... He was safe!..”

“One of the Rescue bots saw a group of Autobots including your young apprentice running towards the Nemesis.” Ultra Magnus was facing the ground as if apologetically. He could feel the pain radiating from his leader. “When they chased after them, they saw a groundbridge closing.”

“They could’ve just walked past it!” Optimus felt his optics getting hotter, voicebox clenching in his intake.

“This is why we made a spark scan of the entire planet.” Ultra Magnus looked away. “Wherever your apprentice is right now, he’s not on Cybertron anymore...”

The blue and red mech put down the datapad. “... I need to go home right now!-” Without any warning, he stood up and tried walking, completely forgetting about the cables connecting him to the life support.

“Sir!-” Perceptor, Prowl, and the High Protector immediately rushed to him, trying to make him sit down. “You can’t leave the hospital, you haven’t fully recovered!”

“I’m going to return as soon as possible after I’ll see my youngling, just PLEASE!- Let me go!”

“You’re not going to find him there!” The three of them finally managed to make the blue and red Autobot return on his beth. Ultra Magnus grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him. “Listen to the reason, sir! Your youngling is missing, just like hundreads other Cybertronians and the Matrix! He’s not at your house, not in Iacon, and not on the planet itself! And this is not my opinion, those are the facts! So before you’ll risk your life to go home and search for him, listen to us!”

After that, the Prime quietend. Ultra Magnus felt like he went a bit too far. He backed off, removing his servos from the mech’s shoulders.

“... I’m really sorry, Prime-”

“Leave me alone.” Optimus interrupted Ultra Magnus to give all of them an order, facing the floor. The group obeyed, leaving the room. After the door closed, they heard a loud metal bang and a frightening yell of a suffering mech.

Prowl wordlessly stepped to another idea, while Perceptor hanged his head in defeat. Ultra Magnus pinched the space between his optics, ex venting heavily.

“What’s happening in there?!” Alarmed Alpha Trion immediately walked to them, worried about his Prime’s state. “Is he alright?!”

“Optimus wishes to be alone for now.” Ultra Magnus said, walking towards the seats with his detective.

“W-what did you tell him?”

“The truth.”

\-----

Despite everything, Optimus kept reading the list. It wasn’t easy, but he knew he had do it to sooner or later so he’d better get this over with right there and then. He covered his mouth, optics widening in disbelief as he went forward.

“Bulkhead...” He whispered raspily. Even his friend wasn’t able to escape this. It wasn’t getting any better from there. Soon, he found Skyfire’s, Bumblebee’s, and Moonracer’s designations as well.

While the Prime knew Skyfire only from the passing, he seemed to have people who cared about him deeply. Who were propably looking for him right now.

Bumblebee was his friend since the old times. He put an imense ammount of trust in him, and Optimus couldn’t even protect him from the danger.

And Moonracer... She was a child. Just like Hot Rod was. She didn’t deserve to be dragged into this. No one did. Deep inside, Optimus hoped, even prayed that they were together now and not alone. He knew that someone had to tell Arcee about this when she returned.

All Cybertronians on the list had their families and loved ones. Each of them was worth protecting and should’ve been protected. He should’ve done more. And now, he even let the Matrix down. Pathetic, was it not?

The red and blue mech paused to collect sparkles erupting from his optics. He glanced at the table, spotting a remote Ultra Magnus was holding before he left. His gaze stopped at it, unable to look away. Right now, he couldn’t do much, could he? He was injured, hopeless, and broken. But he could do something nonethless.

\-----

“Are you still there, Ultra Magnus?” The Prime’s voice sounded from behind the door. Ultra Magnus, who was sitting nearby with Perceptor and Alpha Trion, straightened up a bit startled by that. He stood up and walked over to the door.

“Yes, sir. Do you need anything?”

“You may come in now.” The High Protector opened the door, stepping inside. Alpha Trion and Perceptor followed.

“Alpha Trion.” The scarred mech frowned.

“One more word and you’ll be banned from the Hall of Records for the rest of your lifecycle, commander.” The archivist warned. “I’m allowed to visit my ex student in the time of need!”

Optimus looked up at them.

“Ultra Magnus.” He repeated. The High protector turned his attention to him. “I need you to contact Elita-1. There’s not much time to lose.”

Suddenly Perceptor noticed something on the shelf which made him raise an optical ridge.

\-----  
Prowl was standing before the hospital’s exit. He was glancing at his injured arm, mind wandering somewhere else. What he saw that night in Vos was haunting his visions for the present day. The words he spoke to his brother, his reaction. He desperately wanted to know what was happening. The enforcer couldn't sit back and wait anymore. He had to do something.

“Prowl.” The policebot was about to leave the hospital when a familiar voice spoke behind him, making him stop. He turned around and saw Peceptor. The detective had his arms folded for some reason. The officer couldn't help but frown.

"What do you want?"

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah. I'm going back on to work. Got a problem with that?"

“You left this in Prime’s room.” Suddenly, the decetive revealed a datapad he’s been holding behind his back. Prowl's optics widened. He stepped closer and snatched it out of the other's servo.  
"You activated it?" The enforcer barked. Perceptor nodded. “I knew I should’ve made that password!” Prowl grunted his denta.

"I wouldn't have discovered what you were planning if you did.”

"What is your deal, detective? Are you gonna tell on me?"

"My deal is that you can’t do this alone. An investigation this big requires a far bigger party than just one enforcer. I can help you.”

“Oh, you have to be fragging with me.” Prowl let out an annoyed groan, rolling his optics. “Listen, glass mech.” He pressed the edge of his datapad to Perceptor’s chest, trying to intimidate him. “I don’t work in ‘parties’. And this is a personal case so back off!”

“Is it?” The detective pulled the enforcer’s arm away from himself, optics slightly narrowing. “Do you think Cybertronians losing their close ones each day is just your own case? Do you think Optimus losing his apprentice is just your own case? Do you think it’s an excuse to abuse your position as an enforcer and go out of your way to chase after whatever you want to chase? And by the way, do you even know what you’re chasing after?”

Prowl didn’t answer.

“That’s what I thought.”

“... Tsk!” The policebot snarled, stepping away. “If you want to convince me, try harder. Tomorrow I’m asking Ultra Magnus to let me begin an investigation and I’m doing it effectively and alone! Do me a favor and mind your own business, alright? Have a good day.” He turned around and left the hospital, leaving Perceptor behind. 

“... Good day then.” The detective squinted as he watched the policebot transform and drive away. Suddenly, Ultra Magnus left the room and headed to refueling station nearby.

“Hm..” Perceptor observed him before deciting to follow him. If Prowl wasn’t going to listen to him, it was time to take some drastic measures.

The High Protector pulled out a datapad and started typing in the coordinates to make a call. The detective walked to him and strainghtened up.

“Sir?” The scarred mech turned around to face him. “I know this propably isn’t the right time, but may I suggest something?”

\-----  
Hot Rod was walking around his new base, studying it. Once he’s seen all of it, it seemed way smaller than he expected. Then again, all things seemed small once he got to know them better, but this planet was a whole new experience of that feeling.

“Hey.” Suddenly, the red Speedster heard a voice coming from one of the ‘rooms’ humans set for them. He went closer peeked inside, seeing Moonracer sitting on the floor. Huge stacks of earth stuff were all around her.

“Hey.” Hot Rod replied, stepping inside and scanning the objects. “What’s that?”

“Humans left this for us.” The sea green femmie gestured. “They’re called ‘books’. They use them to store data and gain knowledge. Basically, Earth’s version of datapads.”

“Huh.” The mechling decided to pick one up, tapping it’s cover. “It’s not working.”

“Here.” She picked another one and grabbed it by it’s sides. It split in two, revealing it’s pages.

“Whoah.” Hot Rod chuckled.

“Yeah, it took me like half of an hour to figure it out.” Moonracer let out an amused huff. “I’ve been trying to learn the human’s alphabet.”

“And how that turned out?”

“Pretty badly to be honest. But I’m still beginning so I still have some time to get a hang of it.” The femling smiled, putting the book down. “And what you’ve been up to?”

“Oh, you know.” He decided to sit next to her, crossing his legs. “Tried to process some things, take some walk around the base, by the way, did you know that we have the second floor in this building?”

“We do?”

“And drew a bit.”

“Oh, so that’s why your arm is covered in cyber pens.”

The red Speedster looked at his arm. It was indeed covered with doodles made with cyber pens he was never leaving without anywhere. “Yeah. That’s why. I didn’t exacly have any datapads so I just used my arm.”

“You didn’t want to draw on the wall?” Moonracer smirked.

“I’m not exacly sure if we’re allowed to.”

“Following the rules for once? Hot Rod,” She tried her best to sound disbelieving.

“Yeah yeah, how uncharacteristic of me.” Hot Rod huffed, trying to hide his grin by turning his head in another direction.

“... Can I see them?” She asked after a second. The red Speedster wordlessly extended his arm into her direction. Moonracer catched it and tried to recognize what her friend drew. She noticed the Iacon’s Hall of Records, a few star consellations, and a rather poorly drawn Megatron who was labeled ‘stoopid’.

“It’s supposed to be ‘stupid’, by the way.”

“Yeah, I know. But Megatron doesn’t deserve my correct grammar.”

“... Is that me?” She asked and pointed on one of the doodles that suddenly caught her attention. Hot Rod’s spoiler twitched and his optics widened as he quickly drew his arm back to look at the doodle. It was indeed a picture of Moonracer, but it seemed somehow… different than the femmie based on it.

That Moonracer had her arms crossed and her expression suggested that she was seriously angry. She looked like she was yelling.

“I-sorry! I forgot about this one!”

“Why do I look so upset on it?” She asked. The red youngling grew silent. Moonracer’s expression softened.

“Hey.” She put her servo on his shoulder. “You can tell me. You know I’m not going to judge you. What’s the matter?”

“… I’m sorry Moon.” Hot Rod dropped his spoiler, looking in another direction in shame. “You shouldn’t have been dragged into this. Neither Bulkhead and Bumblebee. I made an even bigger mess than it already was. If I stayed in that building, no. If I stayed home this time we wouldn’t be here in the first place. We wouldn’t be grounded, the Matrix wouldn’t be stuck in my chest, and... you wouldn’t have been in danger. I was so focused on trying to help that I forgot you guys would suffer my consequences too. That was... reckless. And selfish, and didn’t really help anyone at all.”

The femling listened to him closely, expression focused. She paused after he finished, huffing.

“...Alright. Perhaps it was pretty reckless of you. You made many people worried today.”

“I know...” His expression filled even more guilt than before.

“But you also saved the Matrix. That counts for something, right? And we saved Bumblebee today. So I say it wasn’t all that bad.“

“A city was evacuated because of us.”

“... Right. That too.”

“... Moon.” Suddenly, Hot Rod turned to his amica and reached his servo towards her, offering it. His saddened expression shifted and became very serious. “From now on, I’m going to be better. No more escapes or doing things without thinking. I’ll take us home no matter what. That’s a spark promise.”

The sea green femmie stared at him for a second surprised before nodding and accepting it. “You’re going to need help.”

“Yeah. And I’ll gladly accept it.”

“Even if it means changing your ways?”

“Especially if it mean changing my ways.”

Both younglings couldn’t help but smile. After a second they bumped their foreheads against each other in a comforting manner. Even if they were far from home, they were glad that at least had each other to count on.

“So...” After some time Hot Rod pulled back, glancing at the books around them. “The Earth alphabet. Is it much different from Cybertronian’s?”

“Oh. Kind of. Look.” Moonracer opened one of the books and showed them to her amica. “It’s definetly smaller and it’s letters are shorter. That is, at least this one is. Humans actually have more than one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, there are different kinds of signs in other areas of the world. Not to even mention the ones that are not used anymore like that one.”

“Wow, those are some neat drawings! Why would they stop using them?”

”I’m not sure, but once I’ll learn how to read it, I’ll know the answer.”

“Pff. I’m sure I can learn it faster.”

“Oh, really?” Moonracer smirked, frowning slighttly.

“Really!” Hot Rod grinned smugly, picking up the second book.

“Well, mr. Smartaft. Bring it on!”

“It’s on!”

\-----  
Starscream was leaning against the wall, searching through the only useful dapads Barricade gave him. Despite Shockwave’s assurance, the Seeker knew that it was only a matter of time until the scientist would want to leave as well. He had to come up with something quickly.

So far he found a few unfinished weapon blue prints, sketches, and instructions. But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t even remotelly enough to start anything. And besides, he didn’t have any resources.

No ship, no materials, no meaning to go back to Cybertron, and soon no crew as well. This seemed like a tragic end of something he hasn’t started yet.

Starscream’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the loud static coming from one of the freshly repaired computers. At least seemingly repaired. The Seeker snarked and walked closer to turn it off. Just then, a commercial of some sort appeared on the screen. The Nemesis must’ve picked it from the nearest area above the ocean.

It was an information that a new power plant was building nearby. Despite it’s primitive premise, the Seeker ended up being a little intrigued. A building this big looked like it could power his entire ship...

Starscream hummed and decided to try something.

He searched through the global web system of the planet and described a few things. Almost immediately the result popped in. It turned out that Earth had all resources he needed, just a little bit more primitive than what he was used to. But it was still there and still the most useful to his cause.

A glimpse of hope sparkled in his optics. A malicious, twisted hope that gave him a brand new direction for his mission.

“Shockwave.” The leader of the Decepticons opened his comn link, looking at the screen with a smrik. “Gather everyone and head to the bridge. I have a new plan.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaaaand this is the end! Of the introduction arc! (I have to rename it later so people won't get confused)  
Transformers: Metal Force is going to continue. This is merely the beginning of it.  
I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who took their time and read it. Thank you for your views and Kudos. It means a lot. I've been working on this for almost a year now and I can't believe how far I've come. Thanks for sticking with me through this time!  
I have a little bit of a request. I would really appreciate if you guys left for me comments under my work. If you like it, if you hate it, if you think there's some room for improvement? That would help me a lot to motivate!  
Anyway, I hope you'll have a nice day. <3  
Tf: Metal Force will continue


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